Simple Theoretical Treatment of Radiative Transfer in a Finite Cloud Array

Abstract

A one-dimensional radiative transfer equation for a finite cloud array is obtained. First-order scattering of a solar beam is included exactly, and cloud-cloud interaction is parameterized by the horizontally averaged radiance inside a cloud. The cquation yields the accurate solutions of solar flux reflectance for two-dimensional bar array clouds and three-dimensional regular array clouds when compared to Monte-Carlo simulations.