Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
The investigation of the isotropic scattering of radiation in an infinite spherically symmetric atmosphere, which was carried out in a previous paper, is extended to a finite atmosphere bounded by a totally absorbing shell.
It is shown that the solution may be expressed as a series which will certainly converge when the radius of the shell is large enough, and whose terms are found by iteration.
Numerical investigation shows that even for quite modest values of the radius, the convergence is so fast that for most practical purposes all but the first term can be neglected. Except at the very ends of the range, a very simple expression then gives an excellent approximation.