HITRAN Optical Properties

SASKTRAN-TIR supports HITRAN optical properties. However, if the sasktran.HITRANChemical class is used, it is necessary to set the use_cache option to be false. For example,

import sasktran as sk
hitran_o3 = sk.HITRANChemical('O3', use_cache=False)

If this option is not set and an engine object is used to calculate radiance more than once, all radiances except the first will be incorrect. SASKTRAN-TIR includes a sasktran.tir.opticalproperty.HITRANChemicalTIR class which automatically sets the use_cache parameter to be false. This class also makes it possible to set the micro window margin during initialization.

sasktran.tir.opticalproperty.HITRANChemicalTIR(...)

Calculates the optical absorption and extinction of various atmospheric molecules using the Voigt line-shape and the HITRAN spectral line database.

class sasktran.tir.opticalproperty.HITRANChemicalTIR(chemical_name: str, line_tolerance=None, max_line_strength=None, isotope_filter=None, micro_window_margin=None)

Bases: HITRANChemical

Calculates the optical absorption and extinction of various atmospheric molecules using the Voigt line-shape and the HITRAN spectral line database. The object supports all of the HITRAN species specified in the HITRAN database file molparam.txt.

This is a modified version of the HITRANChemical class for use with the TIR engine. The use_cache property is forced to False because the TIR engine uses the internal array-based cross section calculation. This property may cause issues if set to True, particularly when calculate_radiance is more than once on the same engine object.

Examples

>>> from sasktran.tir.opticalproperty import HITRANChemicalTIR
>>> from sasktran import MSIS90
>>> hitran_co2 = HITRANChemicalTIR('CO2', micro_window_margin=50)
>>> atmospheric_state = MSIS90()
>>> hitran_co2.calculate_cross_sections(atmospheric_state, latitude=0, longitude=0, altitude=20000, mjd=54372,                                            wavelengths=[10000, 10001])
CrossSections(wavelengths=array([10000, 10001]), absorption=array([8.23591895e-30, 2.03913420e-28]), scattering=array([0., 0.]), total=array([8.23591895e-30, 2.03913420e-28]))
Parameters:
  • chemical_name (str) – Chemical abbreviation of the molecule of interest.

  • isotope_filter (int, optional) – Allows the HITRAN object to load in just one isotope of the requested molecule. The value set must match one of the isotope labels used for the given molecule in the HITRAN database file, molparam.txt. Note that the code does not adjust the line strength but uses the line strength value as written in the HITRAN database. This means you may have to account for and/or remove the abundance automatically built into the HITRAN database line strength values.

  • line_tolerance (float, optional) – Allows the user to set the tolerance used to reject weak lines from the current micro-window. The default value is 1.0E-09. A larger value will speed up calculation of spectra but may result in choppy spectra at the smaller intensities, especially in extinction/absorption spectra which typically follow the log of the cross-section. A smaller value will reduce choppiness but increase computational speed. A similar result can be achieved by changing property max_line_strength; the choice is really down to the users preference. Only values greater than zero are acceptable.

  • max_line_strength (float, optional) – Allows the user to manually set the maximum line strength within a micro-window. By default the object will use the strongest line in the micro-window. The value is used with the line tolerance to reject weak lines from spectral calculations. Reducing the value of the maximum line strength can reduce choppiness in the spectra. Its use is similar to property line_tolerance. Only values greater than zero are acceptable. A negative value is an error. A value of zero will disable the manual setting and reinstate usage of the default.

  • micro_window_margin (double, optional) – Sets the margin of the micro-window in wavenumbers. This margin extends the upper and lower bounds of the micro-window once it is loaded into memory. The margin value is used to ensure that cross-section calculations near the edge of the micro-window are accurate and have contributions from lines outside the micro-window. The default value is 10 wavenumbers. It is the users responsibility to choose a value for the margin that provides the necessary accuracy for their application.