ARTS (radiative transfer code)
ARTS, which stands for Atmospheric Radiative Transfer Simulator, is a comprehensive and widely used software package designed for simulating radiative transfer in the Earth's atmosphere. Its primary purpose is to model the propagation of electromagnetic radiation through the atmosphere, accounting for absorption, emission, and scattering processes caused by atmospheric gases, clouds, aerosols, and surface properties.
ARTS is employed in a diverse range of atmospheric research applications. It serves as a critical tool for analyzing satellite observations, retrieving atmospheric parameters from remote sensing data, and simulating atmospheric spectra for instrument design and calibration. Furthermore, ARTS is used in climate modeling to accurately represent radiative fluxes and heating rates.
The code is based on the line-by-line approach, meaning it calculates the radiative transfer with a high spectral resolution, resolving individual spectral lines of absorbing gases. This level of detail makes ARTS particularly suitable for simulating measurements from high-resolution spectrometers and understanding the intricate interactions between radiation and atmospheric constituents.
Key features of ARTS include its flexibility in handling different atmospheric scenarios, including various atmospheric profiles, cloud and aerosol models, and surface types. It supports multiple scattering solvers, allowing for the simulation of complex scattering environments. The code is designed to be modular and extensible, allowing users to customize the simulations to their specific needs.
ARTS is actively developed and maintained by a collaborative community of researchers. It is written in C++ and is typically used via a control file interface written in a dedicated XML-based language, allowing for precise control over the simulation parameters. The ARTS package includes extensive documentation, including theoretical descriptions of the radiative transfer processes, detailed user manuals, and example simulations.