What Is The Optical Depth Of The Solar Atmosphere?

by | Last updated on January 24, 2024

, , , ,

Hence for the Sun, where the majority of photons are emitted in the visible wavelength, the photosphere is often defined as the layer where light emitted at 5000 Å (green) has an optical depth of 2/3, ).

What is the optical depth of the sun?

The total optical depth of the whole Sun is

approximately 10

11


. Aside from the corona and chromosphere, only a very thin surface of the Sun, the photosphere, is visible (Artymowicz, 2010).

What is optical depth atmosphere?


The coefficient of attenuation of solar radiation by the atmosphere

is called atmospheric optical depth, and can be calculated by measuring the intensity of direct solar radiation reaching the earth.

What is meant by optical depth?

(τ)

A measure of how far light will travel through a partially transparent medium

, such as the atmosphere of a star or a planet, before it is absorbed or scattered. A completely transparent medium has an optical depth of zero.

How is optical depth calculated?


dF = -ρa kabs F dx

. where ρa is the mass density of a (units kg a / m3 air) and kabs is the absorption coefficient (m2 kg-1).

What is beer Lambert law?

What does the Beer’s Law state? Beer’s Law or the Beer-Lambert Law states that

the amount of energy absorbed or transmitted by a solution is proportional to the solution’s molar absorptivity and the concentration of solute

.

What does an optical depth of 1 mean?

Instead of using. physical distance (vertical or horizontal), we rescale to a dimensionless coordinate, where optical depth = 1 means that

only e-1 = 0.368 of the energy is passed without being extincted (absorbed or scattered) in passing through one unit of optical depth.

Is molar absorptivity constant?

Is the molar absorptivity constant, or does it change as the length of the cuvette changes?

It is constant

. Units of molar absorptivity constant is in M^-1 cm^-1, which is essentially how much is absorbed per unit length.

Can optical depth negative?

All Answers (8)

Yes

, optical depth is defined as the negative natural logarithm of the fraction of radiation (e.g., light) that is not scattered or absorbed on a path. If this fraction is less than about 36.7%, then optical depth is above unity, otherwise it’s below unity.

Is Earth’s atmosphere truly optically thin?

The Earth’s atmosphere is

relatively optically thin at the visible wavelengths

emitted by the sun. … The atmosphere is thin (i.e., its thickness dR is ≪ R, the radius of the central star or planet).

How do you measure absorbance?

Absorbance is measured using

a spectrophotometer or microplate reader

, which is an instrument that shines light of a specified wavelength through a sample and measures the amount of light that the sample absorbs.

What does high optical depth mean?

In physics, optical depth or optical thickness is the

natural logarithm of the ratio of incident to transmitted radiant power through a material

. Thus, the larger the optical depth, the smaller the amount of transmitted radiant power through the material.

What is Eddington approximation?

The Eddington approximation is

a special case of the two stream approximation

. It can be used to obtain the spectral radiance in a “plane-parallel” medium (one in which properties only vary in the perpendicular direction) with isotropic frequency-independent scattering.

What is beer-Lambert law and its limitations?

Limitations of the Beer-Lambert law

Causes of nonlinearity include:

deviations in absorptivity coefficients at high concentrations (>0.01M) due to electrostatic interactions between molecules in close proximity

.

scattering of light

due to particulates in the sample. fluoresecence or phosphorescence of the sample.

What is difference between colorimeter and spectrophotometer?

The main difference between colorimeter and spectrophotometer is that

colorimeter is a device which measures absorbance of specific colours

, whereas a spectrometer measures transmittance or reflectance as a function of wavelength.

What is the difference between Lambert law and beer law?

Lambert’s law stated that

the loss of light intensity when it propagates in a medium is directly proportional to intensity and path length

. … Beer’s law stated that the transmittance of a solution remains constant if the product of concentration and path length stays constant.

Leah Jackson
Author
Leah Jackson
Leah is a relationship coach with over 10 years of experience working with couples and individuals to improve their relationships. She holds a degree in psychology and has trained with leading relationship experts such as John Gottman and Esther Perel. Leah is passionate about helping people build strong, healthy relationships and providing practical advice to overcome common relationship challenges.