Definition
The radiative flux is the amount of electromagnetic power crossing one surface unit. In astronomy, it corresponds to the part of the power emitted by a celestial object received per area unit at the Earth. If the contributions at all the wavelengths are summed, one speaks of bolometric flux and the unit is W m−2. If only a small interval in frequency (or wavelength) is considered, one speaks of spectral flux (unit: W m−2 Hz−1). In the radio domain, the unit currently used is the Jansky (10−26 W m−2 Hz−1).
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Rouan, D. (2014). Flux, Radiative. In: Amils, R., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_584-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_584-2
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Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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