Radiation Transport

Catalog description

The objective of the course is to address comprehensive, deep and overarching knowledge of the transport of radiation, and to master modeling, analysis, and numerical techniques for computing transport, as well as inferring system properties from sparse detector readings. The cosmos is primarily observed and mapped by detecting and assessing the electromagnetic radiation spectrum from objects of interest. Detectors, either terrestrial or located in space, are usually far from the source and the radiation has to travel large distances to reach the detectors. This course will cover the transport of radiation through various media such as interstellar dust, planetary atmospheres and oceans, and others, both from a fundamental physical / mathematical modeling perspective and numerical solution / simulation methods. Fundamentals of the highly complex scattering and absorption processes that attenuate and scatter electromagnetic signals will also be covered. Mathematical and numerical techniques to map the properties and characteristics of the system from limited detector readings will be studied and evaluated. Both steady and time-varying radiation will be addressed. This course builds on the fundamental course “Radiative Processes” that covered the physical processes governing the emission and absorption of radiation.