Knut Stamnes is a Professor in the Department of Physics and Engineering Physics and Director of the Light and Life Laboratory at Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey. His research interests include radiative transfer, ocean optics and remote sensing and he has published over 200 papers and co-authored two textbooks: this one and Radiative Transfer in Coupled Environmental Systems (2015). He is a fellow of the Optical Society (OSA), a member of the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) and a member of the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences.

1. Basic properties of radiation, atmospheres, and oceans; 2. Basic state variables and the radiative transfer equation; 3. Basic scattering processes; 4. Absorption by solid, aqueous, and gaseous media; 5. Principles of radiative transfer; 6. Formulation of radiative transfer problems; 7. Approximation solutions of prototype problems; 8. The role of radiation in climate; 9. Accurate numerical solutions of prototype problems; 10. Shortwave radiative transfer in the atmosphere and ocean; Appendix A. Nomenclature: glossary of symbols; Appendix B. Physical constants; Appendix C. Ocean optics nomenclature; Appendix D. Reflectance and transmittance at an interface; References; Index; Online appendices: Appendix E. A primer on absorption and scattering opacity; Appendix F. Elementary concepts; Appendix G. Derivation of the Planck radiation law; Appendix H. The two-level atom; Appendix I. Non-gray inhomogeneous media; Appendix J. Reciprocity for the bidirectional reflectance; Appendix K. Harmonic electromagnetic plane waves; Appendix L. Representations of polarized light; Appendix M. Spherical shell geometry; Appendix N. The streaming term in spherical geometry; Appendix O. Isolation of the Azimuth-dependence; Appendix P. Scaling transformation for anisotropic scattering; Appendix Q. Reciprocity, duality, and effects of surface reflection; Appendix R. Probabilistic aspects of radiative transfer; Appendix S. Details and derivations; Appendix T. Inherent optical properties; Appendix U. Model atmospheres.