Slant optical depth of an isothermal atmosphere

For an isothermal thin atmosphere with number density $n(z)=n_0{e}^{-z/H}$ and extinction cross-section ${\sigma }_{\lambda }$, a tangent ray near radius $R_p+z$ has height $z+{\ell }^2/(2R_p)$ at distance $\ell$ along the ray. The resulting Gaussian integral gives slant optical depthThe effective transit height is near ${\tau }_{\lambda }\sim 1$, so $z(\lambda )=H\log {\sigma }_{\lambda }+\mathrm{constant}$ if composition is constant. This explains the scattering slope of a transmission spectrum.