On Monday 25 August 2003 17:13, Jonathan Gregory wrote:
> Dear John
>
> I'm just adding your standard names to the table, as we have discussed.
> (Brian and I have been setting up a system to make it practically easier to
> do this.) In doing so, I find I still have questions about two of them:
>
> upwelling_spectral_irradiance. Is there actually any distinction between a
> radiative flux and an irradiance? Both are in W m-2. Would this in fact be
> the same as surface_upwelling_spectral_radiative_flux_in_sea_water or
> _in_air? If so, the latter would be better because we already have many
> names with radiative_flux, but none with irradiance.
I really should have taken that class in radiative transfer when I had the
chance.
As little as I understand it, isn't radiative flux actually just in units of
Watts, while irradiance takes the "per unit area" into account?
>
> downwelling_spectral_radiance: Since a radiance is from a particular
> direction (being per steradian), I am not sure how it can be "downwelling",
> which is less precise than a direction. Won't the direction tell you from
> which hemisphere (up or down) it is coming?
On this I'm going to have to go back to my optics expert and ask (she's a
couple of hundred miles away). I'll get back to you soon, I hope.
--
John Evans
johnevans at acm.org
Received on Mon Aug 25 2003 - 16:40:04 BST
