SCIATRAN is a comprehensive software package for the modeling of radiative transfer processes in the terrestrial atmosphere and ocean in the spectral range from the ultraviolet to the thermal ...infrared (0.18–40μm) including multiple scattering processes, polarization, thermal emission and ocean–atmosphere coupling. The software is capable of modeling spectral and angular distributions of the intensity or the Stokes vector of the transmitted, scattered, reflected, and emitted radiation assuming either a plane-parallel or a spherical atmosphere. Simulations are done either in the scalar or in the vector mode (i.e. accounting for the polarization) for observations by space-, air-, ship- and balloon-borne, ground-based, and underwater instruments in various viewing geometries (nadir, off-nadir, limb, occultation, zenith-sky, off-axis). All significant radiative transfer processes are accounted for. These are, e.g. the Rayleigh scattering, scattering by aerosol and cloud particles, absorption by gaseous components, and bidirectional reflection by an underlying surface including Fresnel reflection from a flat or roughened ocean surface. The software package contains several radiative transfer solvers including finite difference and discrete-ordinate techniques, an extensive database, and a specific module for solving inverse problems. In contrast to many other radiative transfer codes, SCIATRAN incorporates an efficient approach to calculate the so-called Jacobians, i.e. derivatives of the intensity with respect to various atmospheric and surface parameters.
In this paper we discuss numerical methods used in SCIATRAN to solve the scalar and vector radiative transfer equation, describe databases of atmospheric, oceanic, and surface parameters incorporated in SCIATRAN, and demonstrate how to solve some selected radiative transfer problems using the SCIATRAN package. During the last decades, a lot of studies have been published demonstrating that SCIATRAN is a valuable tool for a wide range of remote sensing applications. Here, we present some selected comparisons of SCIATRAN simulations to published benchmark results, independent radiative transfer models, and various measurements from satellite, ground-based, and ship instruments.
Methods for solving inverse problems related to remote sensing of the Earth's atmosphere using the SCIATRAN software are outside the scope of this study and will be discussed in a follow-up paper. The SCIATRAN software package along with a detailed User's Guide is freely available for non-commercial use via the webpage of the Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP), University of Bremen: http://www.iup.physik.uni-bremen.de/sciatran.
•The description of the numerical aspects of the vectorial radiative transfer equation solution.•The application of the software for the simulation of radiative transfer in ocean.•The description of bidirectional distribution reflectance function models.•The full description of aerosol, cloud, and trace gases databases used in the framework of SCIATRAN.•The detailed description of applications of SCIATRAN for atmospheric optics.
ABSTRACT
The existence of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos has been unambiguously demonstrated, but their sources remain elusive. IceCube reported an association of a 290-TeV neutrino with a ...gamma-ray flare of TXS 0506 + 056, an active galactic nucleus with a compact radio jet pointing to us. Later, radio-bright blazars were shown to be associated with IceCube neutrino events with high statistical significance. These associations remained unconfirmed with the data of independent experiments. Here, we report on the detection of a rare neutrino event with the estimated energy of 224 ± 75 TeV from the direction of TXS 0506 + 056 by the new Baikal Gigaton Volume Detector (Baikal-GVD) in April 2021. This event is the highest energy cascade detected so far by the Baikal-GVD neutrino telescope from a direction below horizon. The result supports previous suggestions that radio blazars in general, and TXS 0506 + 056 in particular, are the sources of high-energy neutrinos, and opens up the cascade channel for the neutrino astronomy.
SCIATRAN is a comprehensive software package which is designed to model radiative transfer processes in the terrestrial atmosphere and ocean in the spectral range from the ultraviolet to the thermal ...infrared (0.18–40μm). It accounts for multiple scattering processes, polarization, thermal emission and ocean–atmosphere coupling. The main goal of this paper is to present a recently developed version of SCIATRAN which takes into account accurately inelastic radiative processes in both the atmosphere and the ocean. In the scalar version of the coupled ocean–atmosphere radiative transfer solver presented by Rozanov et al. 61 we have implemented the simulation of the rotational Raman scattering, vibrational Raman scattering, chlorophyll and colored dissolved organic matter fluorescence.
In this paper we discuss and explain the numerical methods used in SCIATRAN to solve the scalar radiative transfer equation including trans-spectral processes, and demonstrate how some selected radiative transfer problems are solved using the SCIATRAN package. In addition we present selected comparisons of SCIATRAN simulations with those published benchmark results, independent radiative transfer models, and various measurements from satellite, ground-based, and ship-borne instruments.
The extended SCIATRAN software package along with a detailed User's Guide is made available for scientists and students, who are undertaking their own research typically at universities, via the web page of the Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP), University of Bremen: http://www.iup.physik.uni-bremen.de.
•A new version of the software package SCIATRAN is presented.•Inelastic scattering in water and atmosphere is implemented in SCIATRAN.•Raman scattering and fluorescence can be included in radiative transfer calculations.•Comparisons to other radiative transfer models show excellent agreement.•Comparisons to observations show consistent results.
The review of optical instrumentation, forward modeling, and inverse problem solution for the polarimetric aerosol remote sensing from space is presented. The special emphasis is given to the ...description of current airborne and satellite imaging polarimeters and also to modern satellite aerosol retrieval algorithms based on the measurements of the Stokes vector of reflected solar light as detected on a satellite. Various underlying surface reflectance models are discussed and evaluated.
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Ozone forms in the Earth's atmosphere from the photodissociation of molecular oxygen, primarily in the tropical stratosphere. It is then transported to the extratropics by the Brewer-Dobson ...circulation (BDC), forming a protective "ozone layer" around the globe. Human emissions of halogen-containing ozone-depleting substances (hODSs) led to a decline in stratospheric ozone until they were banned by the Montreal Protocol, and since 1998 ozone in the upper stratosphere is rising again, likely the recovery from halogen-induced losses. Total column measurements of ozone between the Earth's surface and the top of the atmosphere indicate that the ozone layer has stopped declining across the globe, but no clear increase has been observed at latitudes between 60degS and 60degN outside the polar regions (60-90deg). Here we report evidence from multiple satellite measurements that ozone in the lower stratosphere between 60degS and 60degN has indeed continued to decline since 1998. We find that, even though upper stratospheric ozone is recovering, the continuing downward trend in the lower stratosphere prevails, resulting in a downward trend in stratospheric column ozone between 60degS and 60degN. We find that total column ozone between 60degS and 60degN appears not to have decreased only because of increases in tropospheric column ozone that compensate for the stratospheric decreases. The reasons for the continued reduction of lower stratospheric ozone are not clear; models do not reproduce these trends, and thus the causes now urgently need to be established.
A
bstract
Ultraperipheral collisions of high energy protons are a source of approximately real photons colliding with each other. Photon fusion can result in production of yet unknown charged ...particles in very clean events. The cleanliness of such an event is due to the requirement that the protons survive during the collision. Finite sizes of the protons reduce the probability of such outcome compared to point-like particles. We calculate the survival factors and cross sections for the production of heavy charged particles at the Large Hadron Collider.
Our direct knowledge of solar eruptive events is limited to several decades and does not include extreme events, which can only be studied by the indirect proxy method over millennia, or by a large ...number of Sun‐like stars. There is a gap, spanning 1–2 orders of magnitude, in the strength of events between directly observed and reconstructed ones. Here, we study the proxy method sensitivity to identify extreme solar particle events (SPEs). First, the strongest directly observed SPE (23 February 1956), used as a reference for proxy‐based reconstructions, was revisited using the newly developed method. Next, sensitivity of the cosmogenic‐isotope method to detect a reference SPE was assessed against the precision and number of individual isotopic records, showing that it is too weak by a factor ≈30 to be reliably identified in a single record. Uncertainties of 10Be and 14C data are shown to be dominated by local/regional patterns and measurement errors, respectively. By combining several proxy records, a SPE 4–5 times stronger than the reference one can be potentially detected, increasing the present‐day sensitivity by an order of magnitude. This will allow filling the observational gap in SPE strength distribution, thus enriching statistics of extreme events from 3–4 presently known ones to several tens. This will provide a solid basis for research in the field of extreme events, both for fundamental science, namely solar and stellar physics, and practical applications, such as the risk assessments of severe space‐based hazards for modern technological society.
Key Points
The integral energy spectrum of the strongest directly observed SEP event of 23 February 1956 is revised
Sensitivity of the cosmogenic‐isotope proxy method to extreme SEP events is assessed
It is shown that the sensitivity of the proxy method can be significantly improved by a multiproxy approach
An overview of the state and development of ozone therapy technologies in modern biomedical applications, as well as relevant apparatus and equipment, is presented based on reports at the XV ...International Scientific Conference “Physics and Radioelectronics in Ecology and Medicine — PhREME’2022.” Descriptions and technical characteristics of ozone generators used in various applications, from household to clinical use, are given. Data from a comparative analysis of the main parameters of Russian- and foreign-made equipment for ozone therapy, as well as examples of promising innovative developments, are addressed.
We retrieve ionization rates in the atmosphere caused by energetic electron precipitation from balloon observations in the polar atmosphere and compare them against ionization rates recommended for ...the Phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project. In our retrieval procedure, we consider the precipitating electrons with energies from about tens of keV to 5 MeV. Our simulations with 1‐D radiative‐convective model with interactive neutral and ion chemistry show that the difference of the Phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project and balloon‐based ionization rate can lead to underestimation of the NOx enhancement by more than 100% and ozone loss up to 25% in the mesosphere. The atmospheric response is different below 50 km due to considering highly energetic electrons, but it is not important because the absolute values of atmospheric impact is tiny. Ionization rates obtained from the balloon observations reveal a high variability.
Plain Language Summary
The main idea of our manuscript is to demonstrate that the atmospheric ionization rates (IR) can be successfully retrieved from the long‐term balloon observations of the energetic electron precipitation (EEP) events and used to evaluate the uncertainties of the other IR data sets, for example, IR recommended for the Phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). IR obtained from the balloon observations reveal a high variability. This means that the time resolution used in CMIP6 probably is not enough to consider high frequency variability of the precipitating electron fluxes. Using 1‐D radiative‐convective model with neutral and ion chemistry, we compared the atmospheric response to the one particular EEP observed by balloons and presented in CMIP6 data. We show that the difference of the CMIP6 and balloon‐based IRs can lead to underestimation of the NOx enhancement by more than 100% and ozone loss by up to 25% in the mesosphere. Our results are new and needed for the understanding of the potential uncertainties in CMIP6 EEP forcing. Our paper will give inspiration for the continuation of the balloon measurements of EEP‐related processes using improved instruments.
Key Points
Ionization rates (IR) from energetic electron precipitation (EEP) are calculated using balloon observations and compared to the CMIP6 data set
The difference in the atmospheric response calculated with these two data sets can exceed 100% for NOx and reach 25% for O3
IR obtained from balloon measurements reveal a high temporal variability, which is absent in CMIP6 data
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