  We investigated the time-dependent radiative and dynamical properties of
light supersonic jets launched into an external medium, using hydrodynamic
simulations and numerical radiative transfer calculations. These involved
various structural models for the ambient media, with density profiles
appropriate for galactic and extragalactic systems. The radiative transfer
formulation took full account of emission, absorption, re-emission, Faraday
rotation and Faraday conversion explicitly. High time-resolution intensity maps
were generated, frame-by-frame, to track the spatial hydrodynamical and
radiative properties of the evolving jets. Intensity light curves were computed
via integrating spatially over the emission maps. We apply the models to jets
in active galactic nuclei (AGN). From the jet simulations and the
time-dependent emission calculations we derived empirical relations for the
emission intensity and size for jets at various evolutionary stages. The
temporal properties of jet emission are not solely consequences of intrinsic
variations in the hydrodynamics and thermal properties of the jet. They also
depend on the interaction between the jet and the ambient medium. The
interpretation of radio jet morphology therefore needs to take account of
environmental factors. Our calculations have also shown that the environmental
interactions can affect specific emitting features, such as internal shocks and
hotspots. Quantification of the temporal evolution and spatial distribution of
these bright features, together with the derived relations between jet size and
emission, would enable us to set constraints on the hydrodynamics of AGN and
the structure of the ambient medium.
