Customer Reviews

Radiative Transfer (Dover Books on Physics)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In any heirarchy of books on this subject this one is at or near the top. If you are just a beginner at the subject, don't bother with it just yet. If you have a good foundation in vector calculus, and some knowledge of radiative transfer, go for it. I thought I knew radiative transfer until I read this book. (ok, parts of this book.) Chandrasekhar is one of those people who knows the subject cold, and writes it down clearly with no apologies.

This book is recommended to those who are interested in remote sensing modeling...
It is not an entry-level book, and so require some effort and background,
but definitely worth your time!

I have not had time to get too far into it yet , but the clarity and completeness of the geometric analysis of the phenomena being examined is sufficient to warrant the work a classic

Anyone who says they have read any of Chandrasekhar's books all the way through either has an IQ of 250 or is lying! I'm not convinced anyone has read his books. I think people just say they have so they don't look like an ignorant fool at nerd social gatherings.

Don't waste your money on any of his books. He writes them to explain things to himself; not to you! If you want to learn about radiative transfer, buy Zeldovich and Raizer's "Physics of Shock Waves and High-Temperature Hydrodynamic Phenomena" instead. Unfortunately there are no decent books on modern day numerical methods for radiative transfer. You will have to read journal articles for that.