Atmospheric Radiative Transfer Codes - Applications

Applications

Radiative transfer codes are used in broad range of applications. They are commonly used as forward models for the retrieval of geophysical parameters (such as temperature or humidity). Another common field of application is in a weather or climate model, where the radiative forcing is calculated for greenhouse gases, aerosols or clouds. In such applications radiative transfer codes are often called radiation parameterization. In these applications the radiative transfer codes are used in forward sense, i.e. on the basis of known properties of the atmosphere one calculates heating rates, radiative fluxes, and radiances.

There are efforts for intercomparison of radiation codes. One such project was ICRCCM (Intercomparison of Radiation Codes in Climate Models) effort that spanned the late 80's - early 00's. Current (2011) project Continual Intercomparison of Radiation Codes emphasises also using observations to define intercomparison cases.