Encyclopedia > Optical depth

  Article Content

Optical depth

Optical depth is a measure of transparency, and is defined as the fraction of radiation which is scattered between a point and the observer. One way of visualizing optical depth is to think of a fog. An object that is immediately in front of you has an optical depth of zero. As it moves away, the optical depth increases until to reaches one and is no longer visible. As the object continues to move away the optical depth can continue to increase and then reflects the number of scatterings that a photon has before reaching you.



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Urethra

... urethra develops between the penis and the scrotum. Infection of the urethra is urethritis, said to be more common in females than males. Urethritis is a common cause of ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 22.5 ms