Absorption (electromagnetic Radiation) - Applications

Applications

Understanding and measuring the absorption of electromagnetic radiation has a variety of applications. Here are a few examples:

• In meteorology and climatology, global and local temperatures depend in part on the absorption of radiation by atmospheric gases (such as in the greenhouse effect) and the ground (see albedo).
• In medicine, X-rays are absorbed to different extents by different tissues (bone in particular), which is the basis for X-ray imaging.For example, see computation of radiowave attenuation in the atmosphere used in satellite link design.
• In chemistry and materials science because different materials and molecules will absorb radiation to different extents at different frequencies, which allows for material identification.
• In optics, sunglasses, colored filters, dyes, and other such materials are designed specifically with respect to which visible wavelengths they absorb, and in what proportions.
• In biology, photosynthetic organisms require that light of the appropriate wavelengths be absorbed within the active area of chloroplasts, so that the light energy can be converted into chemical energy within sugars and other molecules.