Radiation in the Atmosphere is the third volume in the series A Course in Theoretical Meteorology. The first two volumes entitled Dynamics of the Atmosphere and Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere were first published in the years 2003 and 2004.

The present textbook is written for graduate students and researchers in the field of meteorology and related sciences. Radiative transfer theory has reached a high point of development and is still a vastly expanding subject. Kourganoff (1952) in the postscript of his well-known book on radiative transfer speaks of the three olympians named completeness, up-to-date-ness and clarity. We have not made any attempt to be complete, but we have tried to be reasonably up-to-date, if this is possible at all with the many articles on radiative transfer appearing in various monthly journals. Moreover, we have tried very hard to present a coherent and consistent development of radiative transfer theory as it applies to the atmosphere. We have given principle allegiance to the olympian clarity and sincerely hope that we have succeeded.

In the selection of topics we have resisted temptation to include various additional themes which traditionally belong to the fields of physical meteorology and physical climatology. Had we included these topics, our book, indeed, would be very bulky, and furthermore, we would not have been able to cover these subjects in the required depth.