An atmospheric radiative transfer model, code, or simulator calculates radiative transfer of electromagnetic radiation through a planetary atmosphere.
At the core of a radiative transfer model lies the radiative transfer equation that is numerically solved using a solver such as a discrete ordinate method or a Monte Carlo method. The radiative transfer equation is a monochromatic equation to calculate radiance in a single layer of the Earth's atmosphere. To calculate the radiance for a spectral region with a finite width (e.g., to estimate the Earth's energy budget or simulate an instrument response), one has to integrate this over a band of frequencies (or wavelengths). The most exact way to do this is to loop through the frequencies of interest, and for each frequency, calculate the radiance at this frequency. For this, one needs to calculate the contribution of each spectral line for all molecules in the atmospheric layer; this is called a line-by-line calculation. For an instrument response, this is then convolved with the spectral response of the instrument.
A faster but more approximate method is a band transmission. Here, the transmission in a region in a band is characterised by a set of pre-calculated coefficients (depending on temperature and other parameters). In addition, models may consider scattering from molecules or particles, as well as polarisation; however, not all models do so.
Radiative transfer codes are used in broad range of applications. They are commonly used as forward models for the retrieval of geophysical parameters (such as temperature or humidity). Radiative transfer models are also used to optimize solar photovoltaic systems for renewable energy generation. [1] Another common field of application is in a weather or climate model, where the radiative forcing is calculated for greenhouse gases, aerosols, or clouds. In such applications, radiative transfer codes are often called radiation parameterization. In these applications, the radiative transfer codes are used in forward sense, i.e. on the basis of known properties of the atmosphere, one calculates heating rates, radiative fluxes, and radiances.
There are efforts for intercomparison of radiation codes. One such project was ICRCCM (Intercomparison of Radiation Codes in Climate Models) effort that spanned the late 1980s – early 2000s. The more current (2011) project, Continual Intercomparison of Radiation Codes, emphasises also using observations to define intercomparison cases. [2]
Name | Website | References | UV | Visible | Near IR | Thermal IR | mm/sub-mm | Microwave | line-by-line/band | Scattering | Polarised | Geometry | License | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4A/OP | Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine | Scott and Chédin (1981) | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | band or line-by-line | Yes | Yes | freeware | ||
6S/6SV1 | Kotchenova et al. (1997) | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | band | ? | Yes | non-Lambertian surface | |||
ARTS | Eriksson et al. (2011) | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | line-by-line | Yes | Yes | spherical 1D, 2D, 3D | GPL | ||
BTRAM | Chapman et al. (2009) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | line-by-line | No | No | 1D,plane-parallel | proprietary commercial | ||
COART | Jin et al. (2006) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | plane-parallel | free | |||
CMFGEN | Hillier (2020) [9] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | line-by-line | Yes | Yes | 1D | |||
CRM | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | band | Yes | No | freely available | Part of NCAR Community Climate Model | |||
CRTM | Johnson et al. (2023) | v3.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | passive, active | band | Yes | v3.0, UV/VIS | 1D, Plane-Parallel | Public Domain | Fresnel ocean surfaces, Lambertian non-ocean surface | |
DART radiative transfer model | Gastellu-Etchegorry et al. (1996) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | band | Yes | ? | spherical 1D, 2D, 3D | free for research with license | non-Lambertian surface, landscape creation and import | |
DISORT | Stamnes et al. (1988) [12] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | radar | Yes | No | plane-parallel or pseudo-spherical (v4.0) | free with restrictions | discrete ordinate, used by others | ||
Eradiate | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | band or line-by-line | Yes | No | plane-parallel, spherical | LGPL | 3D surface simulation | ||
FARMS | Xie et al. (2016) | λ>0.2 µm | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | band | Yes | No | plane-parallel | free | Rapidly simulating downwelling solar radiation at land surface for solar energy and climate research | |
Fu-Liou | Fu and Liou (1993) | No | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No | Yes | ? | plane-parallel | usage online, source code available | web interface online at [16] | ||
FUTBOLIN | Martin-Torres (2005) | λ>0.3 µm | Yes | Yes | Yes | λ<1000 µm | No | line-by-line | Yes | ? | spherical or plane-parallel | handles line-mixing, continuum absorption and NLTE | ||
GENLN2 | Edwards (1992) | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | line-by-line | ? | ? | ||||
KARINE | Eymet (2005) | No | No | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | plane-parallel | GPL | ||||
KCARTA | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | line-by-line | Yes | ? | plane-parallel | freely available | AIRS reference model | ||
KOPRA | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | ||||||
LBLRTM | Clough et al. (2005) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | line-by-line | ? | ? | ||||
LEEDR | Fiorino et al. (2014) | λ>0.2 µm | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | band or line-by-line | Yes | ? | spherical | US government software | extended solar & lunar sources; single & multiple scattering | |
LinePak | Gordley et al. (1994) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | line-by-line | No | No | spherical (Earth and Mars), plane-parallel | freely available with restrictions | web interface, SpectralCalc | |
libRadtran | Mayer and Kylling (2005) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | band or line-by-line | Yes | Yes | plane-parallel or pseudo-spherical | GPL | ||
MATISSE | Caillault et al. (2007) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | band | Yes | ? | proprietary freeware | |||
MCARaTS | [25] | GPL | 3-D Monte Carlo | |||||||||||
MODTRAN | Berk et al. (1998) | ṽ<50,000 cm−1 (eq. to λ>0.2 µm) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | band or line-by-line | Yes | ? | proprietary commercial | solar and lunar source, uses DISORT | ||
MOSART | Cornette (2006) | λ>0.2 µm | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | band | Yes | No | freely available | |||
MSCART | Wang et al. (2017) [28] | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | 1D, 2D, 3D | available on request | |||
PICASO | link | Batalha et al. (2019) [30] Mukherjee et al. (2022) [31] | λ>0.3 μm | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | band or correlated-k | Yes | No | plane-parallel, 1D, 3D | GPL Github | exoplanet, brown dwarf, climate modeling, phase-dependence |
PUMAS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Line-by-line and correlated-k | Yes | Yes | plane-parallel and pseudo-spherical | Free/online tool | |||
RADIS | Pannier (2018) | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | 1D | GPL | ||||
RFM | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | line-by-line | No | ? | available on request | MIPAS reference model based on GENLN2 | |||
RRTM/RRTMG | Mlawer, et al. (1997) | ṽ<50,000 cm−1 (eq. to λ>0.2 µm) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ṽ>10 cm−1 | ? | ? | free of charge | uses DISORT | |||
RTMOM | [ dead link ] | λ>0.25 µm | Yes | Yes | λ<15 µm | No | No | line-by-line | Yes | ? | plane-parallel | freeware | ||
RTTOV | Saunders et al. (1999) | λ>0.4 µm | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | band | Yes | ? | available on request | |||
SASKTRAN | [35] | Bourassa et al. (2008) [36] Zawada et al. (2015) [37] | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | line-by-line | Yes | Yes | spherical 1D, 2D, 3D, plane-parallel | available on request | discrete and Monte Carlo options |
SBDART | Ricchiazzi et al. (1998) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No | Yes | ? | plane-parallel | uses DISORT | |||
SCIATRAN | Rozanov et al. (2005) , [39] Rozanov et al. (2014) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | band or line-by-line | Yes | Yes | plane-parallel or pseudo-spherical or spherical | |||
SHARM | Lyapustin (2002) | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | ? | |||||
SHDOM | Evans (2006) | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | |||||
σ-IASI | Amato et al. (2002) [43] | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | band | Yes | No | plane-parallel | Available on request | Semi-analytical Jacobians. | |
SMART-G | Ramon et al. (2019) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | band or line-by-line | Yes | Yes | plane-parallel or spherical | free for non-commercial purposes | Monte-Carlo code parallelized by GPU (CUDA). Atmosphere or/and ocean options | |
Streamer, Fluxnet | [46] | Key and Schweiger (1998) | No | No | λ>0.6 mm | λ<15 mm | No | No | band | Yes | ? | plane-parallel | Fluxnet is fast version of STREAMER using neural nets | |
XRTM | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | plane-parallel and pseudo-spherical | GPL | ||||
VLIDORT/LIDORT | [48] | Spurr and Christi (2019) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | line-by-line | Yes | Yes VLIDORT only | plane-parallel | Used in SMART and VSTAR radiative transfer | |
Name | Website | References | UV | VIS | Near IR | Thermal IR | Microwave | mm/sub-mm | line-by-line/band | Scattering | Polarised | Geometry | License | Notes |
For a line-by-line calculation, one needs characteristics of the spectral lines, such as the line centre, the intensity, the lower-state energy, the line width and the shape.
Name | Author | Description |
---|---|---|
HITRAN [50] | Rothman et al. (1987, 1992, 1998, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017) | HITRAN is a compilation of molecular spectroscopic parameters that a variety of computer codes use to predict and simulate the transmission and emission of light in the atmosphere. The original version was created at the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories (1960's). The database is maintained and developed at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge MA, USA. |
GEISA [51] | Jacquinet-Husson et al. (1999, 2005, 2008) | GEISA (Gestion et Etude des Informations Spectroscopiques Atmosphériques: Management and Study of Spectroscopic Information) is a computer-accessible spectroscopic database, designed to facilitate accurate forward radiative transfer calculations using a line-by-line and layer-by-layer approach. It was started in 1974 at Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD/IPSL) in France. GEISA is maintained by the ARA group at LMD (Ecole Polytechnique) for its scientific part and by the ETHER group (CNRS Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique-France) at IPSL (Institut Pierre Simon Laplace) for its technical part. Currently, GEISA is involved in activities related to the assessment of the capabilities of IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer on board of the METOP European satellite) through the GEISA/IASI database derived from GEISA. |
Rayleigh scattering is the scattering or deflection of light, or other electromagnetic radiation, by particles with a size much smaller than the wavelength of the radiation. For light frequencies well below the resonance frequency of the scattering medium, the amount of scattering is inversely proportional to the fourth power of the wavelength. The phenomenon is named after the 19th-century British physicist Lord Rayleigh.
Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets electromagnetic spectra. In narrower contexts, spectroscopy is the precise study of color as generalized from visible light to all bands of the electromagnetic spectrum.
A general circulation model (GCM) is a type of climate model. It employs a mathematical model of the general circulation of a planetary atmosphere or ocean. It uses the Navier–Stokes equations on a rotating sphere with thermodynamic terms for various energy sources. These equations are the basis for computer programs used to simulate the Earth's atmosphere or oceans. Atmospheric and oceanic GCMs are key components along with sea ice and land-surface components.
Absorption spectroscopy is spectroscopy that involves techniques that measure the absorption of electromagnetic radiation, as a function of frequency or wavelength, due to its interaction with a sample. The sample absorbs energy, i.e., photons, from the radiating field. The intensity of the absorption varies as a function of frequency, and this variation is the absorption spectrum. Absorption spectroscopy is performed across the electromagnetic spectrum.
The emissivity of the surface of a material is its effectiveness in emitting energy as thermal radiation. Thermal radiation is electromagnetic radiation that most commonly includes both visible radiation (light) and infrared radiation, which is not visible to human eyes. A portion of the thermal radiation from very hot objects is easily visible to the eye.
Radiative transfer is the physical phenomenon of energy transfer in the form of electromagnetic radiation. The propagation of radiation through a medium is affected by absorption, emission, and scattering processes. The equation of radiative transfer describes these interactions mathematically. Equations of radiative transfer have application in a wide variety of subjects including optics, astrophysics, atmospheric science, and remote sensing. Analytic solutions to the radiative transfer equation (RTE) exist for simple cases but for more realistic media, with complex multiple scattering effects, numerical methods are required. The present article is largely focused on the condition of radiative equilibrium.
FUTBOLIN is a radiative transfer model for the calculation of line-by-line atmospheric emission/transmission spectra in planetary atmospheres. It has been developed by Javier Martín-Torres. It allows generating high-resolution synthetic spectra in the 0.3-1000 micrometre spectral range.
Discrete dipole approximation (DDA), also known as coupled dipole approximation, is a method for computing scattering of radiation by particles of arbitrary shape and by periodic structures. Given a target of arbitrary geometry, one seeks to calculate its scattering and absorption properties by an approximation of the continuum target by a finite array of small polarizable dipoles. This technique is used in a variety of applications including nanophotonics, radar scattering, aerosol physics and astrophysics.
HITRAN molecular spectroscopic database is a compilation of spectroscopic parameters used to simulate and analyze the transmission and emission of light in gaseous media, with an emphasis on planetary atmospheres. The knowledge of spectroscopic parameters for transitions between energy levels in molecules is essential for interpreting and modeling the interaction of radiation (light) within different media.
DISORT - general and versatile plane-parallel radiative transfer program applicable to problems from the ultraviolet to the radar regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The absorption of electromagnetic radiation by water depends on the state of the water.
Atmospheric correction is the process of removing the scattering and absorption effects of the atmosphere on the reflectance values of images taken by satellite or airborne sensors. Atmospheric effects in optical remote sensing are significant and complex, dramatically altering the spectral nature of the radiation reaching the remote sensor. The atmosphere both absorbs and scatters various wavelengths of the visible spectrum which must pass through the atmosphere twice, once from the sun to the object and then again as it travels back up the image sensor. These distortions are corrected using various approaches and techniques, as described below.
In models of radiative transfer, the two-stream approximation is a discrete ordinate approximation in which radiation propagating along only two discrete directions is considered. In other words, the two-stream approximation assumes the intensity is constant with angle in the upward hemisphere, with a different constant value in the downward hemisphere. It was first used by Arthur Schuster in 1905. The two ordinates are chosen such that the model captures the essence of radiative transport in light scattering atmospheres. A practical benefit of the approach is that it reduces the computational cost of integrating the radiative transfer equation. The two-stream approximation is commonly used in parameterizations of radiative transport in global circulation models and in weather forecasting models, such as the WRF. There are a large number of applications of the two-stream approximation, including variants such as the Kubelka-Munk approximation. It is the simplest approximation that can be used to explain common observations inexplicable by single-scattering arguments, such as the brightness and color of the clear sky, the brightness of clouds, the whiteness of a glass of milk, and the darkening of sand upon wetting. The two-stream approximation comes in many variants, such as the Quadrature, and Hemispheric constant models. Mathematical descriptions of the two-stream approximation are given in several books. The two-stream approximation is separate from the Eddington approximation, which instead assumes that the intensity is linear in the cosine of the incidence angle, with no discontinuity at the horizon.
Codes for electromagnetic scattering by spheres - this article list codes for electromagnetic scattering by a homogeneous sphere, layered sphere, and cluster of spheres.
The Transition Matrix Method is a computational technique of light scattering by nonspherical particles originally formulated by Peter C. Waterman (1928–2012) in 1965. The technique is also known as null field method and extended boundary condition method (EBCM). In the method, matrix elements are obtained by matching boundary conditions for solutions of Maxwell equations. It has been greatly extended to incorporate diverse types of linear media occupying the region enclosing the scatterer. T-matrix method proves to be highly efficient and has been widely used in computing electromagnetic scattering of single and compound particles.
COART - COART is established on the Coupled DIScrete Ordinate Radiative Transfer code, developed from DISORT. It is designed to simulate radiance and irradiance (flux) at any levels in the atmosphere and ocean consistently.
ARTS is a widely used atmospheric radiative transfer simulator for infrared, microwave, and sub-millimeter wavelengths. While the model is developed by a community, core development is done by the University of Hamburg and Chalmers University, with previous participation from Luleå University of Technology and University of Bremen.
Dirubidium is a molecular substance containing two atoms of rubidium found in rubidium vapour. Dirubidium has two active valence electrons. It is studied both in theory and with experiment. The rubidium trimer has also been observed.
In the study of heat transfer, Schwarzschild's equation is used to calculate radiative transfer through a medium in local thermodynamic equilibrium that both absorbs and emits radiation.
Near-field radiative heat transfer (NFRHT) is a branch of radiative heat transfer which deals with situations for which the objects and/or distances separating objects are comparable or smaller in scale or to the dominant wavelength of thermal radiation exchanging thermal energy. In this regime, the assumptions of geometrical optics inherent to classical radiative heat transfer are not valid and the effects of diffraction, interference, and tunneling of electromagentic waves can dominate the net heat transfer. These "near-field effects" can result in heat transfer rates exceeding the blackbody limit of classical radiative heat transfer.