On the Equivalence Between the Discrete Ordinates and the Spherical Harmonics Methods in Radiative Transfer

In this work concerning steady-state radiative-transfer calculations in plane-parallel media, the equivalence between the discrete ordinates method and the spherical harmonics method is proved. More specifically, it is shown that for standard radiative-transfer problems without the imposed restriction of azimuthal symmetry the two methods yield identical results for the radiation intensity when the quadrature scheme for the discrete ordinates method is defined by the zeros of the associated Legendre functions and when generalized Mark boundary conditions are used to define the spherical harmonics solution. It is also shown that, with these choices for a quadrature scheme and for the boundary conditions, the two methods can be formulated so as to require the same computational effort. Finally a justification for using the generalized Mark boundary conditions in the spherical harmonics solution is given.