Upwind Monotonic Interpolation Methods for the Solution of the Time Dependent Radiative Transfer Equation

We describe the use of upwind monotonic interpolation methods for the solution of the time-dependent radiative transfer equation in both optically thin and thick media. These methods, originally developed to solve Eulerian advection problems in hydrodynamics, have the ability to propagate sharp features in the ow with very little numerical di usion. We consider the implementation of both explicit and implicit versions of the method. The explicit version is able to keep radiation fronts resolved to only a few zones wide when higher order interpolation methods are used. Although traditional implementations of the implicit version su er from large numerical di usion, we describe an implicit method which considerably reduces this di usion.