Albedo-shifting method: Source function in a plane atmosphere

A classical problem in the theory of radiative transfer is considered: calculating the radiation field within a plane scattering atmosphere. The recently proposed albedo-shifting method is used to calculate the source function both in a semi-infinite atmosphere and in an atmophere of finite optical depth, illuminated by parallel rays. The method enables one to “suppress” scattering and obtain iterative solutions of the integral equation for the source function in only a few direct lambda iterations, even when the average number of photon scatterings in the atmosphere is very large. Translated from Astrofizika, Vol. 42, No. 4, pp. 485–500, October–December, 1999.