Investigation of numerical properties of Hovenier's Exit Function equation for multiple scattering of light

We show that Hovenier's Exit Function equation describing reflection and transmission by a plane-parallel layer can be obtained from the Invariant Imbedding equations. As an immediate extension we obtain a similar equation for an Exit Function defined in terms of reflection and transmission functions for successive orders of scattering. These equations allow the reflection and transmission functions of a homogeneous atmosphere of arbitrary optical thickness to be obtained from angle integrations of only one function.A technique based on successive iterations is developed to solve Hovenier's equation. The numerical behavior of this equation is then investigated employing a few representative (i.e., isotropic, Rayleigh, and Henyey-Greenstein) phase functions with the following conclusions. (i) As long as the deviation from isotropy is small (cos 0.15), the Exit Function equation can be numerically solved with an efficiency comparable to that of the standard Doubling technique, which is one of the fastest algorithms available. (ii) The reflection function generated from the Exit Function is usually more accurate than the corresponding transmission function, particularly in the case of large optical thickness. (iii) As the degree of anisotropy increases, so does the difficulty in obtaining the numerical solution for the Exit Function. The solution of the equation depends sensitively on the treatment of the numerical singularities which arise from the integrands and also on the initial approximation employed for the iteration. An improved scheme is required for numerically obtaining the Exit Function in order for this method to yield accurate reflection and transmission functions for strongly anisotropic scattering.