Modern data assimilation algorithms depend on accurate infrared spectroscopy in order to make use of the information related to temperature, water vapor (H2O), and other trace gases provided by ...satellite observations. Reducing the uncertainties in our knowledge of spectroscopic line parameters and continuum absorption is thus important to improve the application of satellite data to weather forecasting. Here we present the results of a rigorous validation of spectroscopic updates to an advanced radiative transfer model, the Line-By-Line Radiative Transfer Model (LBLRTM), against a global dataset of 120 near-nadir, over-ocean, nighttime spectra from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI). We compare calculations from the latest version of LBLRTM (v12.1) to those from a previous version (v9.4+) to determine the impact of spectroscopic updates to the model on spectral residuals as well as retrieved temperature and H2O profiles. We show that the spectroscopy in the CO2 ν2 and ν3 bands is significantly improved in LBLRTM v12.1 relative to v9.4+, and that these spectroscopic updates lead to mean changes of ~0.5 K in the retrieved vertical temperature profiles between the surface and 10 hPa, with the sign of the change and the variability among cases depending on altitude. We also find that temperature retrievals using each of these two CO2 bands are remarkably consistent in LBLRTM v12.1, potentially allowing these bands to be used to retrieve atmospheric temperature simultaneously. The updated H2O spectroscopy in LBLRTM v12.1 substantially improves the a posteriori residuals in the P-branch of the H2O ν2 band, while the improvements in the R-branch are more modest. The H2O amounts retrieved with LBLRTM v12.1 are on average 14% lower between 100 and 200 hPa, 42% higher near 562 hPa, and 31% higher near the surface compared to the amounts retrieved with v9.4+ due to a combination of the different retrieved temperature profiles and the updated H2O spectroscopy. We also find that the use of a fixed ratio of HDO to H2O in LBLRTM may be responsible for a significant fraction of the remaining bias in the P-branch relative to the R-branch of the H2O ν2 band. There were no changes to O3 spectroscopy between the two model versions, and so both versions give positive a posteriori residuals of ~ 0.3 K in the R-branch of the O3 ν3 band. While the updates to the H2O self-continuum employed by LBLRTM v12.1 have clearly improved the match with observations near the CO2 ν3 band head, we find that these updates have significantly degraded the match with observations in the fundamental band of CO. Finally, significant systematic a posteriori residuals remain in the ν4 band of CH4, but the magnitude of the positive bias in the retrieved mixing ratios is reduced in LBLRTM v12.1, suggesting that the updated spectroscopy could improve retrievals of CH4 from satellite observations.
The radiative transfer models developed at AER are being used extensively for a wide range of applications in the atmospheric sciences. This communication is intended to provide a coherent summary of ...the various radiative transfer models and associated databases publicly available from AER (
http://www.rtweb.aer.com). Among the communities using the models are the remote sensing community (e.g. TES, IASI), the numerical weather prediction community (e.g. ECMWF, NCEP GFS, WRF, MM5), and the climate community (e.g. ECHAM5). Included in this communication is a description of the central features and recent updates for the following models: the line-by-line radiative transfer model (LBLRTM); the line file creation program (LNFL); the longwave and shortwave rapid radiative transfer models, RRTM_LW and RRTM_SW; the Monochromatic Radiative Transfer Model (MonoRTM); the MT_CKD Continuum; and the Kurucz Solar Source Function. LBLRTM and the associated line parameter database (e.g. HITRAN 2000 with 2001 updates) play a central role in the suite of models. The physics adopted for LBLRTM has been extensively analyzed in the context of closure experiments involving the evaluation of the model inputs (e.g. atmospheric state), spectral radiative measurements and the spectral model output. The rapid radiative transfer models are then developed and evaluated using the validated LBLRTM model.
Jupiter's auroral emission is a spectacular phenomenon that provides insight into energy release processes related to the coupling of its magnetosphere and ionosphere. This energy release is ...influenced by solar wind conditions. Using joint observations from Juno and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), we statistically investigate the relationship between auroral power and current sheet variations under different solar wind conditions. In this study, we reveal that during global main auroral brightening events that are closely connected to solar wind compressions, the dawn side current sheet is substantially thinner than during times when a quiet auroral morphology is present. Furthermore, the total current intensity in the current sheet is found to increase under solar wind compression conditions compared to the quiet period. These findings provide important observational evidence for how magnetospheric dynamics driven by solar wind behavior affect auroral activity, deepening our understanding of the coupling between Jupiter's magnetosphere and ionosphere.
Plain Language Summary
Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, has a fascinating and powerful auroral emission that can help us understand the interactions between its magnetic field and the charged particles in its atmosphere. These auroral emissions are influenced by solar wind conditions, which are streams of charged particles coming from the Sun. In this study, we used observations from the Juno spacecraft and the Hubble Space Telescope to investigate the relationship between Jupiter's auroral emissions and changes in the planet's magnetic field. We found that during periods of increased solar wind pressure, the magnetic field layer, known as the current sheet, becomes thinner compared to times when the aurora is quiet. These findings offer valuable evidence of how Jupiter's magnetic field is affected by solar wind behavior and improve our understanding of the relationship between the planet's magnetic field and its aurora. This research helps us better comprehend the complex processes occurring in Jupiter's magnetosphere and can potentially enhance our knowledge of similar phenomena occurring on other planets.
Key Points
The features of the current sheet in Jupiter's dawnside magnetosphere are highly relevant to auroral contexts
During a solar wind compression event, the dawnside current sheet becomes substantially thinner than during quiet times
The total current intensity of the current sheet is much higher during solar wind compression events than the quiet times
We report the direct detection of solid water ice deposits exposed on the surface of comet 9P/Tempel 1, as observed by the Deep Impact mission. Three anomalously colored areas are shown to include ...water ice on the basis of their near-infrared spectra, which include diagnostic water ice absorptions at wavelengths of 1.5 and 2.0 micrometers. These absorptions are well modeled as a mixture of nearby non-ice regions and 3 to 6% water ice particles 10 to 50 micrometers in diameter. These particle sizes are larger than those ejected during the impact experiment, which suggests that the surface deposits are loose aggregates. The total area of exposed water ice is substantially less than that required to support the observed ambient outgassing from the comet, which likely has additional source regions below the surface.
Far‐infrared (λ > 15.0 μm) (far‐IR) radiative processes provide a large fraction of Earth's outgoing longwave radiation and influence upper tropospheric vertical motion. Water vapor, because of its ...abundance and strong absorption properties over an extended spectral range, is the primary source of these radiative processes. Historically, the lack of spectrally resolved radiometric instruments and the opacity of the lower atmosphere have precluded extensive studies of far‐IR water vapor absorption properties. The U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program has organized a series of field experiments, the Radiative Heating in Underexplored Bands Campaigns (RHUBC), to address this deficiency. The first phase of RHUBC took place in 2007 at the ARM North Slope of Alaska Climate Research Facility. Measurements taken before and during this campaign have provided the basis for a clear‐sky radiative closure study aimed at reducing key uncertainties associated with far‐IR radiative transfer models. Extended‐range Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer infrared radiance observations taken in clear sky conditions were compared against calculations from the Line‐By‐Line Radiative Transfer Model. The water vapor column amounts used in these calculations were retrieved from 183 GHz radiometer measurements. The uncertainty in these integrated water vapor retrievals is approximately 2%, a notable improvement over past studies. This far‐IR radiative closure study resulted in an improvement to the Mlawer‐Tobin Clough‐Kneiyzs‐Davies (MT_CKD) water vapor foreign continuum model and updates to numerous, far‐IR water vapor line parameters from their values in the circa 2006 version of the HITRAN molecular line parameter database.
EPOXI at Comet Hartley 2 A'Hearn, Michael F.; Belton, Michael J. S.; Delamere, W. Alan ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
06/2011, Letnik:
332, Številka:
6036
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Understanding how comets work—what drives their activity—is crucial to the use of comets in studying the early solar system. EPOXI (Extrasolar Planet Observation and Deep Impact Extended ...Investigation) flew past comet 103P/Hartley 2, one with an unusually small but very active nucleus, taking both images and spectra. Unlike large, relatively inactive nuclei, this nucleus is outgassing primarily because of CO 2 , which drags chunks of ice out of the nucleus. It also shows substantial differences in the relative abundance of volatiles from various parts of the nucleus.
A field experiment was conducted in northern Chile at an altitude of 5.3 km to evaluate the accuracy of line‐by‐line radiative transfer models in regions of the spectrum that are typically opaque at ...sea level due to strong water vapor absorption. A suite of spectrally resolved radiance instruments collected simultaneous observations that, for the first time ever, spanned the entire terrestrial thermal spectrum (i.e., from 10 to 3000 cm−1, or 1000 to 3.3 μm). These radiance observations, together with collocated water vapor and temperature profiles, are used to provide an initial evaluation of the accuracy of water vapor absorption in the far‐infrared of two line‐by‐line radiative transfer models. These initial results suggest that the more recent of the two models is more accurate in the strongly absorbing water vapor pure rotation band. This result supports the validity of the Turner et al. (2012) study that demonstrated that the use of the more recent water vapor absorption model in climate simulations resulted in significant radiative and dynamical changes in the simulation relative to the older water vapor model.
Key PointsFirst ground‐based spectrally‐resolved observations of entire infrared spectrumExtremely dry conditions result in semi‐transparent regions in far‐infraredObservations used to evaluate line‐by‐line radiative transfer models
The second Radiative Heating in Underexplored Bands Campaign (RHUBC‐II) was conducted in 2009 by the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program to improve water vapor ...spectroscopy in the far‐infrared spectral region. RHUBC‐II was located in an extremely dry region of Chile to ensure very low opacities in this spectral region. Spectrally resolved measurements by a far‐infrared spectrometer and a submillimeter interferometer from RHUBC‐II are compared with line‐by‐line radiative transfer model calculations. Water vapor amounts and temperatures used in the calculations come from collocated radiosondes, with extensive adjustments to correct for issues due to the campaign's dry conditions and mountainous terrain. A reanalysis is also performed of far‐infrared measurements taken at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement North Slope of Alaska site before and during the first RHUBC campaign. These analyses determine that differences between the measurements and model calculations using existing spectroscopic parameters are significant in the far‐infrared and submillimeter regions, leading to the derivation of improved water vapor continuum absorption coefficients and air‐broadened widths of 74 water vapor lines. The foreign continuum is increased by more than 50% in part of the far‐infrared and the widths of more than 20 lines are changed by more than 10%. The uncertainty in the foreign continuum coefficients is estimated as greater than 20% in some spectral regions, primarily a consequence of the uncertainty in the specification of water vapor. The improved far‐infrared spectroscopic parameters have a notable impact on calculated spectral radiances and a modest impact on broadband radiative fluxes and heating rates.
Key Points
Radiomteric measurements from two Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program field campaigns, held in dry locations, have been analyzed
Improved spectroscopic parameters for the water vapor continuum and lines in the far‐infrared and submillimeter regions have been derived
The improved far‐infrared spectroscopic parameters have a notable impact on calculated spectral radiances and a modest impact on broadband radiative fluxes and heating rates
Air-broadened half-widths of the 22- and 183-GHz water-vapor lines and associated uncertainties have been determined using comparisons between ground-based radiometric measurements from Atmospheric ...Radiation Measurement sites in Oklahoma and Alaska, and MonoRTM, a radiative transfer model. Values of the widths obtained using the measurements are 0.0900 cm -1 /atm with 1.6% uncertainty for the 22-GHz line and 0.0992 cm -1 /atm with 2.4% uncertainty for the 183-GHz line. Also presented are spectroscopic parameters for these lines from new calculations performed using the complex implementation of the Robert-Bonamy theory (CRB). The CRB values of the air-broadened widths are 0.0913 cm -1 /atm with 3% uncertainty and a temperature exponent of 0.755 for the 22-GHz line and 0.0997 cm -1 /atm with 3% uncertainty and a temperature exponent of 0.769 for the 183-GHz line. The values for the air-broadened half-widths derived from the measurement/model comparisons show good agreement with the new CRB calculations. For future versions of MonoRTM, width values of 0.0900 and 0.0997 cm -1 /atm are to be adopted with temperature dependences of 0.76 and 0.77 for the 22- and 183-GHz lines, respectively.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been orbiting Mars since 2006 and has acquired >80,000 HiRISE images with sub-meter resolution, contributing to over 2000 peer-reviewed publications, and has ...provided the data needed to enable safe surface landings in key locations by several rovers or landers. This paper describes the changes to science planning, data processing, and analysis tools since the initial Primary Science Phase in 2006–2008. These changes affect the data used or requested by the community and how they should interpret the data. There have been a variety of complications to the dataset over the years, such as gaps in monitoring due to spacecraft and instrument issues and special events like the arrival of new landers or rovers on Mars or global dust storms. The HiRISE optics have performed well except for a period when temperature uniformity was perturbed, reducing the resolution of some images. The focal plane system now has 12 rather than 14 operational detectors. The first failure (2011) was a unit at the edge of the swath width, reducing image width by 10% rather than creating a gap. The recent (2023) failure was in the middle of the swath. An unusual problem with the analog-to-digital conversion of the signal (resulting in erroneous data) has worsened over time; mitigation steps so far have preserved full-resolution imaging over all functional detectors. Soon, full-resolution imaging will be narrowed to a subset of the detectors and there will be more 2 × 2 binned data. We describe lessons received for future very high-resolution orbital imaging. We continue to invite all interested people to suggest HiRISE targets on Mars via HiWish, and to explore the easy-to-use publicly available images.
•HiRISE has acquired >80,000 images of Mars with meter-scale resolution and has contributed to >2,000 publications.•HiRISE has enabled safe landings in scientifically compelling locations.•This paper describes how the experiment has changed over 14 years of extended science.•We encourage all those who are interested to suggest HiRISE targets via HiWish.
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