Calculating the Short-wave Radiation Field at the Boundaries of a Cloudless Atmosphere.

A numerical solution is obtained for the equations determining the Ambartsumyan functions for models of a homogeneous and an inhomogeneous cloudless atmosphere. The light scattering indicatrix is represented by a finite number N of terms of a legendre polynomial expansion. The obtained values of the Ambartsumyan functions are used to calculate the degree of illumination of the underlying surface, the atmospheric abbedo, and the radiative flux divergence. An analysis is made of the effect of inhomogeneity of the atmosphere, and of the number N on the result of the calculation.