PHYS 721 – Fall 2009

Atmospheric Radiative Transfer

 

Course Project

 

 

 

  • Introduction to the Phys 721 course project

Students are supposed to propose and work on a small course project for the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer class. The project grade will account for 25% of the final grade. The project can be experimental, theoretical, conceptual, computational, etc, and it is encouraged to be related to a research project in which the student is involved or is interested in getting involved with. Although the project may or may not be completely finished by the end of the course, students are supposed to present a brief final report that describes the idea, the developments executed along the course, and plans for continuation (if the project is to continue). The main requirement is that the subject of the project must be related to material covered in class.

Students are encouraged to connect this project with other activities they may be already involved with (other courses, research opportunities, etc.).

 

More information will be posted here as it becomes available.

 

 

Ideas for the Phys 721 course project:

Any idea related with subjects covered during the course could be considered for the course project. Each project must be discussed a priori with the instructor and within our capabilities, available resources will be provided to allow students to perform experimental projects.

 

In order to motivate your imagination, here are some ideas of valid course projects but, any other idea can be considered and should be presented to the instructor:

 

  • Experiments and  Calibration of  a Thermal IR instrument

A Thermal camera and basic materials will be provided.

 

  • Experiments and Calibration of  an imaging polarimeter

Basic material can be provided for this experiment.

 

  • Modifications and Applications of a polarized radiative transfer code

The particular code we would use requires some modification to increase its accuracy on polarization calculations of single scattering phenomena. The student could implement these modifications based on analytical results of Mie theory and compare the advantages of both approaches by applying the results to rainbows and other polarized phenomena.

 

  • Measurement of the radiative properties of spherical and non-spherical particles

Use the new system developed here at UMBC to measure the phase function and other radiative properties of aerosol particles