| Session Details | |
| Section | AS - Atmospheric Sciences |
| Session Title | Frontiers and Challenges in the Applications of Radiative Transfer |
| Main Convener | Prof. Xianglei Huang (University of Michigan, United States) |
| Co-convener(s) | Dr. Wei-Liang Lee (Academia Sinica, Taiwan) Dr. Daniel Feldman (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, United States) |
| Session Description | Radiation plays uniquely important role across the weather and climate timescales and from the surface throughout the entire atmosphere. Long-standing challenges still exist and new topics keep emerging in the traditional applications of radiative transfer in the numerical modeling of weather and climate, in the remote sensing of our climate system, as well as in the remote sensing and modeling of planetary atmospheres. Meanwhile, there are a large number of rich and varied applications for detailed radiative transfer, especially as it pertains to the renewable electrical energy sector. Accurate forecasts on synoptic to decadal time-scales are needed both for thermal and photovoltaic solar energy and wind energy production, and these rely on accurate, potentially three-dimensional, spectrally-varying radiative transfer to calculate and predict the incoming solar and outgoing thermal radiation environments. Detailed study of urban heat island also needs complex radiative transfer. To foster discussions of radiative transfer applications across different communities and to spark new interdisciplinary research, we invite presentations on the frontiers of radiative transfer applications in all the disciplines. Topics include but are not limited to areas such as (1) new radiative parameterizations in climate and weather models; (2) novel applications of radiative transfer in remote sensing; (3) comparative radiative transfer in planetary atmospheres; (4) surface irradiance forecasting for the integration of renewable power into the electrical grid, at a wide range of time-scales, ranging from those relevant to weather forecasting to the decadal time-scales needed for renewable infrastructure decisions; (5) radiative transfer modeling pertinent to urban heat island effect. We hope this session will give the entire community a timely opportunity to review what have been achieved and what still remain outstanding issues. |