Atmospheric radiative transfer codes
View article: MODIS Collection 6 MAIAC algorithm
MODIS Collection 6 MAIAC algorithm Open
This paper describes the latest version of the algorithm MAIAC used for processing the MODIS Collection 6 data record. Since initial publication in 2011–2012, MAIAC has changed considerably to adapt to global processing and improve cloud/s…
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The libRadtran software package for radiative transfer calculations (version 2.0.1) Open
libRadtran is a widely used software package for radiative transfer calculations. It allows one to compute (polarized) radiances, irradiance, and actinic fluxes in the solar and thermal spectral regions. libRadtran has been used for variou…
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An update on the RTTOV fast radiative transfer model (currently at version 12) Open
This paper gives an update of the RTTOV (Radiative Transfer for TOVS) fast radiative transfer model, which is widely used in the satellite retrieval and data assimilation communities. RTTOV is a fast radiative transfer model for simulating…
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NASA's Black Marble nighttime lights product suite Open
NASA's Black Marble nighttime lights product suite (VNP46) is available at 500m resolution since January 2012 \nwith data from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day/Night Band (DNB) onboard the Suomi \nNational Polar-or…
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The AERONET Version 3 aerosol retrieval algorithm, associated uncertainties and comparisons to Version 2 Open
The Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) Version 3 (V3) aerosol retrieval algorithm is described, which is based on the Version 2 (V2) algorithm with numerous updates. Comparisons of V3 aerosol retrievals to those of V2 are presented, along w…
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A Flexible and Efficient Radiation Scheme for the ECMWF Model Open
This paper describes a new radiation scheme ecRad for use both in the model of the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), and off‐line for noncommercial research. Its modular structure allows the spectral resolution, t…
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Fast radiative transfer parameterisation for assessing the surface solar irradiance: The Heliosat‑4 method Open
The new Heliosat-4 method estimates the downwelling shortwave irradiance received at ground level in all \nsky conditions. It provides the global irradiance and its direct and diffuse components on a horizontal plane \nand the direct irrad…
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Exploring the observational constraints on the simulation of brown carbon Open
Organic aerosols (OA) that strongly absorb solar radiation in the near-UV are referred to as brown carbon (BrC). The sources, evolution, and optical properties of BrC remain highly uncertain and contribute significantly to uncertainty in t…
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DART: Recent Advances in Remote Sensing Data Modeling With Atmosphere, Polarization, and Chlorophyll Fluorescence Open
To better understand the life-essential cycles andprocesses of our planet and to further develop remote sensing (RS)technology, there is an increasing need for models that simulatethe radiative budget (RB) and RS acquisitions of urban andn…
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Modeling the global radiative effect of brown carbon: a potentially larger heating source in the tropical free troposphere than black carbon Open
Carbonaceous aerosols significantly affect global radiative forcing and climate through absorption and the scattering of sunlight. Black carbon (BC) and brown carbon (BrC) are light-absorbing carbonaceous aerosols. The direct radiative eff…
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Carbon monoxide total column retrievals from TROPOMI shortwaveinfrared measurements Open
The Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) spectrometer is the single payload of the Copernicus Sentinel 5 Precursor (S5P) mission. It measures Earth radiance spectra in the shortwave infrared spectral range around 2.3 µm with a dedi…
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ARTS, the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer Simulator – version 2.2, the planetary toolbox edition Open
This article describes the latest stable release (version 2.2) of the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer Simulator (ARTS), a public domain software for radiative transfer simulations in the thermal spectral range (microwave to infrared). The m…
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Surface and top-of-atmosphere radiative feedback kernels for CESM-CAM5 Open
Radiative kernels at the top of the atmosphere are useful for decomposing changes in atmospheric radiative fluxes due to feedbacks from atmosphere and surface temperature, water vapor, and surface albedo. Here we describe and validate radi…
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Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) Aura nitrogen dioxide standard product version 4.0 with improved surface and cloud treatments Open
We present a new and improved version (V4.0) of the NASA standard nitrogen dioxide (NO2) product from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on the Aura satellite. This version incorporates the most salient improvements for OMI NO2 products…
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Radiance-based retrieval bias mitigation for the MOPITT instrument: the version 8 product Open
The MOPITT (Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere) satellite instrument has been making nearly continuous observations of atmospheric carbon monoxide (CO) since 2000. Satellite observations of CO are routinely used to analyze emissi…
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Application of Sentinel-2A data for pasture biomass monitoring using a physically based radiative transfer model Open
A large proportion of the global land surface is covered by pasture. The advent of the Sentinel satellites program provides free datasets with good spatiotemporal resolution that can be a valuable source of information for monitoring pastu…
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Interpreting the ultraviolet aerosol index observed with the OMI satellite instrument to understand absorption by organic aerosols: implications for atmospheric oxidation and direct radiative effects Open
Satellite observations of the ultraviolet aerosol index (UVAI) are sensitive to absorption of solar radiation by aerosols; this absorption affects photolysis frequencies and radiative forcing. We develop a global simulation of the UVAI usi…
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A Comparison of Hybrid Machine Learning Algorithms for the Retrieval of Wheat Biophysical Variables from Sentinel-2 Open
This study focuses on the comparison of hybrid methods of estimation of biophysical variables such as leaf area index (LAI), leaf chlorophyll content (LCC), fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR), fraction of vege…
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A new radiation infrastructure for the Modular Earth Submodel System (MESSy, based on version 2.51) Open
The Modular Earth Submodel System (MESSy) provides an interface to couple submodels to a base model via a highly flexible data management facility (Jöckel et al., 2010). In the present paper we present the four new radiation related submod…
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SMRT: an active–passive microwave radiative transfer model for snow with multiple microstructure and scattering formulations (v1.0) Open
The Snow Microwave Radiative Transfer (SMRT) thermal emission and backscatter model was developed to determine uncertainties in forward modeling through intercomparison of different model ingredients. The model differs from established mod…
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Extending Fluspect to simulate xanthophyll driven leaf reflectance dynamics Open
The xanthophyll cycle regulates the energy flow to photosynthetic reaction centres of plant leaves. Changes in the de-epoxidation state (DEPS) of xanthophyll cycle pigments can be observed as changes in the leaf absorption of light with wa…
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Global Estimation of Biophysical Variables from Google Earth Engine Platform Open
This paper proposes a processing chain for the derivation of global Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR), Fraction Vegetation Cover (FVC), and Canopy water content (CWC) maps from 15-years…
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Dust impact on surface solar irradiance assessed with model simulations, satellite observations and ground-based measurements Open
This study assesses the impact of dust on surface solar radiation focussing on an extreme dust event. For this purpose, we exploited the synergy of AERONET measurements and passive and active satellite remote sensing (MODIS and CALIPSO) ob…
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Refinement of the ice absorption spectrum in the visible using radiance profile measurements in Antarctic snow Open
Ice is a highly transparent material in the visible. According to the most widely used database (IA2008; Warren and Brandt, 2008), the ice absorption coefficient reaches values lower than 10−3 m−1 around 400 nm. These values were obtained …
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SAR-enhanced mapping of live fuel moisture content Open
Assessing wildfire risk presents several challenges due to uncertainty in fuel flammability and ignition potential. Live fuel moisture content (LFMC) - the mass of water per unit dry biomass in vegetation - exerts a direct control on fuel …
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Nitrogen dioxide observations from the Geostationary Trace gas and Aerosol Sensor Optimization (GeoTASO) airborne instrument: Retrieval algorithm and measurements during DISCOVER-AQ Texas 2013 Open
The Geostationary Trace gas and Aerosol Sensor Optimization (GeoTASO) airborne instrument is a test bed for upcoming air quality satellite instruments that will measure backscattered ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared light from geosta…
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Radiative Effect of Clouds at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, as Inferred from Ground-Based Remote Sensing Observations Open
For the first time, the cloud radiative effect (CRE) has been characterized for the Arctic site Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, Norway, including more than 2 years of data (June 2016–September 2018). The cloud radiative effect, that is, the differen…
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Integration of in-situ and multi-sensor satellite observations for long-term water quality monitoring in coastal areas Open
Recently, there have been significant efforts in the integration of in-situ and satellite observations for effective monitoring of coastal areas (e.g., the Copernicus program of the European Space Agency). In this study, a 15-year diurnal …
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Aerosol radiative effects with MACv2 Open
Monthly global maps for aerosol properties of the Max Planck Aerosol Climatology version 2 (MACv2) are applied in an offline radiative transfer model to determine aerosol radiative effects. This model setup cannot address rapid adjustments…
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Radiative effects of global MODIS cloud regimes Open
We update previously published Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) global cloud regimes (CRs) using the latest MODIS cloud retrievals in the Collection 6 data set. We implement a slightly different derivation method, inve…