Relations among atmospheric structure, refraction, and extinction

Abstract

The refraction and extinction in the Earth’s atmosphere depend on the atmosphere’s structure, so it was natural to try to infer that structure from optical observations. Efforts to extract structure from observed refractions led to proof that this is possible only below the astronomical horizon. Direct studies of the real atmosphere show complicated, variable structure. The complex history of relations between structure and refraction is outlined by citing some important works.

Keywords

• Refraction
• Extinction
• Atmospheric Structure
• Polytropes
• Lapse Rate
• Inverse Problems
• Standard Atmosphere