Simulation of atmospheric effect on the emergent radiation over a circular lake

The upwelling radiation at the top of the atmosphere is computed over a circular lake which is located in the uniform Lambert surface, using a modified version of the doubling-adding method. The radiance over the lake is discussed with respect to the atmospheric effect. The radius of the lake is assumed to be 0.5, 1, and 3 km. The observational site is located at altitude 30 km. The zenith of the observational site is located in the plane which is determined by the zenith of the center of the lake and incident solar direction. The zenith angle of the observational site to the center of the lake is fixed to 6.28°. The atmosphere is assumed to be homogeneous, which is composed of aerosol and molecule, where the model aerosol is of the oceanic or the water soluble types.Numerical simulation exhibits an extraordinary effect near the lake. The radiance of the lake against the surrounding depends upon the albedo of the surrounding surface. It increases with the increase of the size of the lake and decreases with the optical thickness. At large optical depth, the radiance depends upon the aerosol characteristics. It shows little dependence on the solar zenith angle if less than ∼ 60°.