Kinsell L. Coulson

Bio: Kinsell L. Coulson is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Polarization (waves) & Rayleigh sky model. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 288 citations.

Singular optics: optical vortices and polarization singularities

Abstract: Publisher Summary The widespread availability of spatially and temporally coherent laser sources makes the production of optical vortices inevitable in any experiment involving scattered laser light. The realization of quantized vortices is not specific to optics: these objects occur in all spatial scalar fields. Although optical vortices are often referred to as “points of phase singularity within a cross section of the field,” physical optical fields extend over three dimensions, and the phase singularities are actually lines of perfect destructive interference that are embedded in the volume filled by the light. Optical vortices are examples of the singularity lines within all complicated scalar fields. By comparison, electromagnetic vector fields do not generally have nodes in all components simultaneously. However, vector fields possess singularities associated with the parameterization of elliptical and partial polarization rather than phase. Polarization singularities are present in many situations, ranging from sunlight to the light transmitted by birefringent materials. Their descriptors are more complicated than their scalar counterpart in that they have both handedness and additional categorization. The study of optical vortices and orbital angular momentum has led to a recognition that the energy flow—characterized by the Poynting vector—has features not immediately apparent from the intensity alone, nor from global properties of a beam.

Radiative Transfer in the Atmosphere and Ocean

Abstract: Preface 1. Basic properties of radiation, atmospheres and oceans 2. Basic state variables 3. Interaction of radiation with matter 4. Formulation of radiative transfer problems 5. Approximate solutions of prototype problems 6. Accurate numerical solutions of prototype problems 7. Emission-dominated radiative processes 8. Radiative transfer in spectrally-complex media 9. Solar radiation driving photochemistry and photobiology 10. The role of radiation in climate Appendix 1. A primer on radiative transfer: absorption and scattering opacity Appendix 2. Stokes parameters, Poincare sphere, and the Mueller matrix Appendix 3. Nomenclature: glossary of symbols Appendix 4. Principle of reciprocity for the bidirectional reflectance Appendix 5. Isolation of the azimuth-dependence Appendix 6. The streaming term in spherical geometry Appendix 7. Reflectance and transmittance of the invariant intensity (I n2) Appendix 8. Scaling transformation for anisotropic scattering Appendix 9. Reciprocity, duality and effects of surface reflection Appendix 10. Removal of overflow problems in the intensity formulas.

Radiative Transfer in the Atmosphere and Ocean

Abstract: Preface 1. Basic properties of radiation, atmospheres and oceans 2. Basic state variables 3. Interaction of radiation with matter 4. Formulation of radiative transfer problems 5. Approximate solutions of prototype problems 6. Accurate numerical solutions of prototype problems 7. Emission-dominated radiative processes 8. Radiative transfer in spectrally-complex media 9. Solar radiation driving photochemistry and photobiology 10. The role of radiation in climate Appendix 1. A primer on radiative transfer: absorption and scattering opacity Appendix 2. Stokes parameters, Poincare sphere, and the Mueller matrix Appendix 3. Nomenclature: glossary of symbols Appendix 4. Principle of reciprocity for the bidirectional reflectance Appendix 5. Isolation of the azimuth-dependence Appendix 6. The streaming term in spherical geometry Appendix 7. Reflectance and transmittance of the invariant intensity (I n2) Appendix 8. Scaling transformation for anisotropic scattering Appendix 9. Reciprocity, duality and effects of surface reflection Appendix 10. Removal of overflow problems in the intensity formulas.

Retrieval algorithm for CO 2 and CH 4 column abundances from short-wavelength infrared spectral observations by the Greenhouse gases observing satellite

Abstract: . The Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) was launched on 23 January 2009 to monitor the global distributions of carbon dioxide and methane from space. It has operated continuously since then. Here, we describe a retrieval algorithm for column abundances of these gases from the short-wavelength infrared spectra obtained by the Thermal And Near infrared Sensor for carbon Observation-Fourier Transform Spectrometer (TANSO-FTS). The algorithm consists of three steps. First, cloud-free observational scenes are selected by several cloud-detection methods. Then, column abundances of carbon dioxide and methane are retrieved based on the optimal estimation method. Finally, the retrieval quality is examined to exclude low-quality and/or aerosol-contaminated results. Most of the retrieval random errors come from instrumental noise. The interferences due to auxiliary parameters retrieved simultaneously with gas abundances are small. The evaluated precisions of the retrieved column abundances for single observations are less than 1% in most cases. The interhemispherical differences and temporal variation patterns of the retrieved column abundances show features similar to those of an atmospheric transport model.