A new scheme based on perturbation method is presented to solve the problem of solar/ infrared radiative transfer (SRT/IRT) in a scattering medium, in which the inherent optical properties (IOPs) are vertically inhomogeneous. The Eddington approximation for SRT and the two-stream approximation for IRT are used as the zeroth-order solution, and multiplescattering effect of inhomogeneous IOPs is included in the first-order solution. Observations show that the stratocumulus clouds are vertically

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... homogeneous, and the accuracy of SRT/ IRT for stratocumulus clouds by different solutions is evaluated. In the spectral band of 0.25-0.69 μm, the relative error in absorption with inhomogeneous SRT solution is 1.4% at most, but with the homogeneous SRT solution, it can be up to 7.4%. In the spectral band of 5-8 μm, the maximum relative error of downward emissivity can reach À11% for the homogeneous IRT solution but only À2% for the inhomogeneous IRT solution.