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Everything about Optical depth
Physics concept regarding radiation transparency and attenuation
In physics, optical depth or optical thickness is the natural logarithm of the ratio of incident to transmitted radiant power through a material. Thus, the larger the optical depth, the smaller the fraction of transmitted radiant power through the medium. Spectral optical depth or spectral optical thickness is the natural logarithm of the ratio of incident to transmitted spectral radiant power through a material. Wikipedia →
🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path
- Read the overview: Optical depthA 5-minute orientation
- Skim a recent paper: Hydrogen reionization ends by z = 5.3: Lyman-α optical depth measured by the XQR-30 sampleInfluential work since 2022
- Pick up a classic book: Magic eye IIIThe most-reprinted book on the subject
- Read the landmark paper: On Rayleigh Optical Depth CalculationsCited 351 times
- Go sideways: TransmittanceA closely related topic
- Go sideways: AbsorbanceA closely related topic
📖 Definitions
Noun The natural logarithm of the ratio of amount of radiation that hits an object to the amount of radiation that emerges from that object on the other side.
🗂️ The subject at a glance
🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)
On Rayleigh Optical Depth Calculations
Gravitational microlensing at large optical depth
Diurnal variations in optical depth at Mars
Variation in MERRA-2 aerosol optical depth and absorption aerosol optical depth over China from 1980 to 2017
Aerosol Optical Depth Over India
Rayleigh optical depth comparisons from various sources
Depth response of confocal optical microscopes
Extinction and optical depth of contrails
🆕 Influential since 2022
Hydrogen reionization ends by z = 5.3: Lyman-α optical depth measured by the XQR-30 sample
Turning a negative neutrino mass into a positive optical depth
Measuring the reionization optical depth without large-scale CMB polarization
Aerosol optical depth regime over megacities of the world
Correcting Optical Aberration via Depth-Aware Point Spread Functions
📚 Books worth reading
Magic eye IIIN.E. Thing Enterprises · 1994- 📕Problems in depth perceptionFrank L. Agee · 1966
3D Optical Illusions With 3D Glasses and Two Markers to Create 3D ImagesDee Costello · 2010
Consumer Depth Cameras for Computer Vision
Advances in Computer Vision and Pattern RecognitionAndrea Fossati · 2012
Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.
🔗 Related topics
- Transmittance Electromagnetic radiation can be affected in several ways by the medium in which it propagates. It can be scattered, absorbed, and reflected and refracted…
- Absorbance In spectroscopy, absorbance (abbreviated as A) is a logarithmic value which describes the portion of a beam of light which does not pass through a sample…
- Attenuation coefficient The linear attenuation coefficient, attenuation coefficient, or narrow-beam attenuation coefficient characterizes how easily a volume of material can be…
- Beer–Lambert law The Beer–Lambert law (also known as Beer's law) is used to determine the concentration of substances in a solution. It describes how the amount of light…
- Absorptance In the study of heat transfer, absorptance of the surface of a material is its effectiveness in absorbing radiant energy. It is the ratio of the absorbed…
- Optical depth (astrophysics) Optical depth in astrophysics refers to a measure of transparency for electromagnetic radiation within an astrophysical medium. Quantified by the symbol…
- Radiant flux In radiometry, radiant flux or radiant power is the radiant energy emitted, reflected, transmitted, or received per unit time, and spectral flux or spectral…
- Radiance In radiometry, radiance is the radiant flux emitted, reflected, transmitted or received by a given surface, per unit solid angle per unit projected area…