Introduction to SBDART

Earth Space Research Group

SBDART: A Practical Tool for Plane-Parallel Radiative

Transfer in the Earth's Atmosphere

Authors

Paul Ricchiazzi, Shiren Yang, and Catherine Gautier

Earth Space Research Group

Institute for Computational Earth System Science
University of California, Santa Barbara

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Introduction
SBDART (Santa Barbara DISORT Atmospheric Radiative Transfer) is a FORTRAN computer
code designed for the analysis of a wide variety of radiative transfer problems encountered in
satellite remote sensing and atmospheric energy budget studies. The program is based on a
collection of highly developed and reliable physical models, which have been developed by the
atmospheric science community over the past few decades. The following discussion is a brief
introduction to the key components of the code and the models on which they are based.

Cloud Model

Clouds are a major modulator of the earths climate, both by reflecting visible radiation back
out to space and by intercepting part of the infrared radiation emitted by the Earth and re-
radiating it back to the surface. The computation of radiative transfer within a cloudy
atmosphere requires knowledge of the scattering efficiency, the single scattering albedo,

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which is the probability that a extinction event scatters rather than absorbs a photon, and the
asymmetry factor, which indicates the strength of forward scattering. SBDART contains an
internal database of these parameters for clouds composed of spherical water or ice droplets.
This internal database was computed with a Mie scattering code and covers a range of particle
size effective radius in the range 2 to 128um . (The effective radius is the ratio of the third
and second moments of the droplet radius distribution). By default, the angular distribution of
scattered photons is based on the simple Henyey-Greenstein parameterization, but more
detailed scattering functions may be input as desired. (The Henyey-Greenstein approximation
has been shown to provide good accuracy when applied to radiative flux calculations (van de
Hulst, 1968; Hansen, 1969).

Gas Absorption Model

In its standard mode of operation SBDART relies on low resolution band models developed for
the LOWTRAN 7 atmospheric transmission code (Pierluissi and Marogoudakis, 1986). These
models provide the clear sky atmospheric transmisson from 0 to 50000 cm -1 and include
the effects of all radiatively active molecular species found in the earth's atmosphere. The
models were derived from detailed line-by-line calculations which were degraded to 20 cm -
1 resolution for use in LOWTRAN. This translates to a wavelength resolution of about 5 nm
in the visible and about 200 nm in the thermal infrared.

Because these band models represent rather large wavelength bins, the transmission functions
do not necessarily follow Beers law; i.e., the fractional transmission through a slab of material
depends not only on the slab thickness but also on the amount of material penetrated before
entering the slab. In order to allow these transmission functions to be used with DISORT
(which assumes Beers law behavior), the band models are approximated with a three term
exponential fit (Wiscomb and Evans, 1977).

A capability to read high resolution k-distribution optical depths from a disk file was introduced
in SBDART version 2.0. This mode of operation is less convenient to use than the standard
approach, as it requires use of another program, which accesses a large spectral database to
generate the high resolution files. However, it has the advantage of removing limitations in the
ultimate spectral resolution available with SBDART. The ancillary programs, CKLW and
CKSW, may be used to create these high-spectral resolution optical depth files. These
programs have not been exercised as thoroughly as SBDART. For now, they should be
considered experimental.

Extraterrestrial Source Spectra

To facilitate comparison with other radiative transfer codes, SBDART may be run with any of
three extraterrestrial solar spectrum models. The default is to use the LOWTRAN-7 solar
spectrum (Thekeakara, 1974). This model is based on measurements between 300 and 610nm

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and uses a lambda-4 power law for longer wavelengths. Optionally, SBDART may be run with
the solar models used in 5s (Tanre et al. 1990) or MODTRAN-3. The MODTRAN-3 model is
probably the most accurate. It is a composite of information gathered by several different
spectral measurement campaigns. For wavelengths between 174 and 351nm the spectral
information is based on observations made with the Solar Ultraviolet Spectral Irradiance
Monitor flown on Spacelab 2 (VanHoosier et al. 1988). Wavelengths between 351 and 868nm
are based on the results of Neckel and Labs (1984). The observations of Wehrli (1985) are
used for wavelengths between 0.868 and 3.226um. And finally, for wavelengths greater
3.23um, the longwave power law dependence of LOWTRAN-7 (Thekeakara, 1974) is used.

Standard Atmospheric Models

We have adopted six standard atmospheric profiles from the 5s atmospheric radiation code
which are intended to model the following typical climatic conditions: tropical, midlatitude
summer, midlatitude winter, subarctic summer, subarctic winter and US62. These model
atmospheres (McClatchey et al, 1971) have been widely used in the atmospheric research
community and provide standard vertical profiles of pressure, temperature, water vapor and
ozone density. In addition, the user can specify their own model atmosphere based on, for
example, a series of radiosonde profiles. The concentration of trace gases such as CO2 or CH4
are assumed to make up a fixed fraction (which may be specified by the user) of the total
particle density.

Standard Aerosol Models

SBDART can compute the radiative effects of several common boundary layer and upper
atmosphere aerosol types. In the boundary layer, the user can select either rural, urban, or
maritime aerosols. These models differ from one another in the way their scattering efficiency,
single scattering albedo and asymmetry factors vary with wavelength. The total vertical optical
depth of boundary layer aerosols is derived from user specified horizontal meteorologic
visibility at 0.55 um and an internal vertical distribution model. In the upper atmosphere
up to 5 aerosol layers can be specified, with radiative characteristics that model fresh and
aged volcanic, meteoric and the climitologic tropospheric background aerosols. The aerosol
models included in SBDART were derived from those provided in the 5s (Tanre, 1988) and
LOWTRAN7 computer codes (Shettle and Fenn, 1975).

Radiative Transfer Equation Solver

The radiative transfer equation is numerically integrated with DISORT (DIScreet Ordinate
Radiative Transfer, Stamnes et al, 1988). The discrete ordinate method provides a numerically
stable algorithm to solve the equations of plane-parallel radiative transfer in a vertically
inhomogeneous atmosphere. The intensity of both scattered and thermally emitted radiation

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can be computed at different heights and directions. SBDART is configured to allow up to 65

atmospheric layers and 40 radiation streams (40 zenith angles and 40 azimuthal modes).

Surface Models

The ground surface cover is an important determinant of the overall radiation environment. In
SBDART six basic surface types -- ocean water (Viollier, 1980), lake water (Kondratyev, 1969),
vegetation (Manual of Remote Sensing), snow (Wiscombe and Warren, 1980) and sand
(Staetter and Schroeder, 1978) -- are used to parameterize the spectral reflectivity of the
surface. The spectral reflectivity of a large variety of surface conditions is well approximated
by combinations of these basic types. For example, the fractions of vegetation, water and
sand can be adjusted to generate a new spectral reflectivity representing new/old growth, or
deciduous vs evergreen forest. Combining a small fraction of the spectral reflectivity of water
with that of sand yields an overall spectral dependence close to wet soil.

SBDART Installation
The SBDART distribution package, is supplied in a single tar file. To expedite web transfers,
the file is compressed using gzip, available at no cost from the Free Software Foundation.
Since a Unix makefile is included in the tar file, SBDART installation is straightforward on a
Unix system:

unix> gunzip sbdart_2.4.tar.gz

unix> tar xvf sbdart_2.4.tar
unix> make

On a Windows PC a similar procedure could be used if the freely available Unix-like

environment provided by Cygwin has been installed. Otherwise Winzip may be used to
extract the source files from the compressed tar file. The final step is to import the source files
into the interactive development environment (IDE) of your Fortran compiler.

The tar file also includes a UNIX shell script, test_runs, that directs SBDART to produce output
corresponding to the five sample problems given below. The output is written to files sbchk.1,
sbchk.2, sbchk.3, sbchk.4 and sbchk.5. The contents of these files should be compared to the
corresponding files provided in the release package, named sbout.1, sbout.2, sbout.3, sbout.4,
and sbout.5, which were generated by SBDART on our DEC Alpha workstations.

Also included in the tar file is rt.doc, a plain text file which fully describes all input
parameters. A separate file, disort.doc, is also included that documents some of the important
parameters used in the DISORT radiative transfer module.

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The SBDART distribution package does not contain any graphics software. However, the
output data formats are simple and the development of automatic graphics postprocessor
should be straightforward. To limit the amount of superfluous output, most of the standard
output formats do not include any descriptive labeling information. Though labeling text makes
it easier to visually inspect output, it also increases the size of the output file and tends to
complicate the design of postprocessing code. In most cases only a few quantities are output
for each radiative transfer calculation. For example, the data written for standard output,
IOUT=10 (probably the most used), consists of only 9 quantities. rt.doc contains descriptions
of all the standard output formats.

The SBDART Input File

User inputs are handled with FORTRAN NAMELIST input. A significant advantage of NAMELIST
input is that not all elements of an input block need be specified by the user. Since, most of
the code inputs have been initialized with reasonable default values, a new user can quickly
learn how to use the code, concentrating first on specifying just a few interesting input
parameters. The default state of input parameters may be determined by removing INPUT
from the current working directory. When SBDART detects the absence of file INPUT, it will
print the default settings of all input parameters. This output may be redirected to a file for
editing.

The SBDART input file is named INPUT (must be upper case on case sensitive operating
systems). This file consists of a single NAMELIST block, &INPUT.

EXAMPLES

In this section we present several real-world examples of how to use SBDART. To keep the
discussion as clear as possible, the instructions given below are for the UNIX operating
system.

Example 1.

As a first example, here is an input file which causes SBDART to compute the spectral surface
irradiance from 0.25 to 1.0 um .

$input
idatm=4, isat=0, wlinf=.25, wlsup=1.0, wlinc=.005, iout=1,
$end

The sbout.1 file contains the SBDART output corresponding to this input. Each output record
corresponds to a single wavelength. Columns 1 through 8 are: the wavelength (um ), filter
value (unity in this example), the downwelling solar flux at the top of the atmosphere (TOA,

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Wm -2 um -1 ), the TOA upwelling radiant flux, the TOA direct solar

flux, the downwelling radiant flux at the surface, the upwelling radiant flux at the surface and
the direct solar flux at the surface. The results for this first example are shown below. A good
way to verify that SBDART is operating correctly on your system is to use your favorite
graphics software to read sbout.1 and compare the results visually. The plot of surface
irradiance versus wavelength provides a good test. The two plots should be nearly identical.
(NOTE: due to the differences in math libraries used on different computer systems, a
comparison of the output files with UNIX "diff" is bound to show some differences, but if
SBDART is operating properly these will be quite small.)

Example 2.

Most of the interesting applications of SBDART require that the code be repeatedly executed
to obtain output values which approximately represent the full range of the total input
parameter space. For example, to investigate how surface irradiance depends on the
combined effects of cloud optical depth and surface albedo, SBDART must be executed in a
doubly nested loop, over these two parameters. In practice, the easiest way to implement this
is to use a shell script to perform the looping. Here is a simple UNIX sh script to perform the
optical depth, surface albedo problem :

#!/local/gnu/bin/bash
############################################################
# shell script for Example 2
# vary optical depth and surface albedo
############################################################

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rm -f sbchk.2

for albcon in 0 .2 .4 .6 .8 1 ; do
for tcloud in 0 1 2 4 8 16 32 64 ; do
echo "
&INPUT
tcloud=$tcloud
albcon=$albcon
idatm=4
isat=0
wlinf=.55
wlsup=.55
isalb=0
iout=10
sza=30
/" > INPUT
sbdart >> sbchk.2
done
done

This shell script writes out a new version of INPUT for each iteration of the nested for loops.
Results for this run are shown below. Note: when reading the output from this run into your
graphics software remember that the inner loop represents variations in cloud optical depth.

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Example 3.

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Compute the spectral surface irradiance in the thermal IR for three cases: clear skies, and high
altitude clouds of optical depth 1 and 5.

Method: Similar to example 1, but wavelength range has been changed to 4-20 um. Here is a
shell script which performs the required calculations:

#!/local/gnu/bin/bash
############################################################
# shell script for Example 3
# spectral output in thermal IR
############################################################

rm -f sbchk.3

for tcloud in 0 1 5 ; do

echo "
&INPUT
tcloud=$tcloud
zcloud=8
nre=10
idatm=4
sza=95
wlinf=4
wlsup=20
wlinc=-.01
iout=1
/" > INPUT

sbdart >> sbchk.3

done

The output for this run is shown here:

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Example 4.

Use SBDART to illustrate the Nakajima and King (1990) method for retrieving cloud optical
depth and cloud drop effective radius from measurements in two pass bands: a non-
absorptive band for which the cloud single scattering albedo is very close to one and an
absorptive band with a smaller single scattering albedo.

Method: Plot the radiance at 0.55 um (non-absorptive band) on the vertical axis and
radiance at 2.16 um (absorptive band) on the horizontal axis. Compute the TOA upwelling
flux in these two bands for cloud optical depths = 0,1,2,4,8,16,32,64 and for cloud drop
effective radius = 2,4,8,16,32,64,128. You can compute this example by running the bash
script, sbcmd.4, which is included in the SBDART distripution package. Compare your results
to those shown here:

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Example 5.

Compute the radiance above and below a solid layer of stratus cloud over an ocean surface.
The solar zenith angle is 60 degrees, and the sensor bandpass is centered at 0.72 um .
Consider clouds of optical depth 5 and 15. This example can be executed with script sbcmd.5.

Radiance information is obtained by specifying IOUT=20, 21, or 23, and by setting values for
UZEN and PHI, which are the zenith angles and relative azimuth angles at which the radiance
information is generated ( Radiance Viewing Geometry ). In previous examples, the input
parameter NSTR, which sets the number of internal radiation streams, was left at its default
value of 4 (4 polar angles and 4 azimuthal modes). While 4 streams is adequate for irradiance
computations (irradiance predictions with NSTR=4 are within a percent of calculations
performed with a greater number of streams), radiance predictions require more streams to
better resolve the angular dependence of the radiation field. As a result, the calculation of
radiance takes much longer than irradiance.

The IOUT=23 output format provides the same irradiance information as produced by
examples 2, 3 or 4 and is supplemented by the radiance output quantities. The output for

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IOUT=20 and 21 provides the radiance at the surface, and at the top-of-the-atmosphere
(TOA), respectively. The IOUT=23 format is a combination of these two output options,
providing the upwelling radiance (zenith < 90) at the TOA, and the downwelling (zenith > 90)
radiance at the surface. The definitions of the viewing geometry and other radiance inputs are
fully described in the rt.doc online document. Below we show contour plots of the radiance in
the upper hemisphere as a function of zenith angle and relative azimuth angle. The contours
in the upper semicircle represent TOA radiance values, while the lower semicircle shows
surface radiance. The optical depth 5 case is on the left.

References

Kneizs, F.X., E.P. Shettle, W.O. Gallery, J.H. Chetwynd, L.W., Abreu, J.E.A. Selby, S.A. Clough
and R.W. Fenn, "Atmospheric transmittance/radiance: computer code LOWTRAN 6", Air Force
Geophysics Laboratroy, Report AFGL-TR-83-0187, Hanscom AFB, MA. 1983.

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Kondratyev, K. Y., 1969: "Radiation in the atmosphere", Academic Press, N.Y. 10003 USA

Manual of Remote Sensing, American Society of Photogrammetry, R.G. Reeves, A. Anson, D.

Landen, eds. 1st ed. Falls Church, Va., 1975.

McClatchey, R.A., R.W. Fenn, J.E.A. Selby, F.E. Volz, J.S. Garing, 1972: Optical properties of
the atmosphere, (third edition), Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories, Report AFCRL-72-
0497.

Neckel, H. and D. Labs, 1984: "The solar radiation between 3300 and 12500 angstroms", Solar
Physics, 90, 205-258

Nakajima T. and M.D. King, 1990: "Determination of theoretical thickness and effective particle
radius of clouds from reflected solar radiation measurements, part I: theory." Journal of the
Atmospheric Sciences, 47, 1878-1893.

Pierluissi, J.H., and Maragoudakis, C.E. 1986: "Molecular Transmission Band Models for
LOWTRAN", AFGL-TR-86-0272, AD A180655.

Shettle, E. P., and R. W. Fenn, 1975: "Models of the atmospheric aerosols and their optical
properties." AGARD conference proceedings no. 183, Optical Propagation in the Atmosphere,
700 pages, presented at the Electromagnetic Wave Propagation Panel Symposium, Lyngby,
Denmark 27-31 October 1975, sponsored by North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Advisory
Group for Aerospace Research.

Stamnes, K., S. Tsay, W. Wiscombe and K. Jayaweera, 1988: "Numerically stable algorithm for
discrete-ordinate-method radiative transfer in multiple scattering and emitting layered media."
Appl. Opt., 27, 2502-2509.

Staetter, R., and M. Schroeder, 1978: "Spectral characteristics of natural surfaces", Proceeding
of the tenth Int. Conf. on Earth Obs. from Space, 6-11 March 1978, (ESA-SP, 134)

Tanre, D. et al, "Simulation of the Satellite Signal in the Solar Spectrum (5s), Laboratorire
d'Optique Atmospherique Universite des Sciences et Techniques de Lille, 59655 Villeneuve
d'Ascq Cedex, France, Jan 1988

Thekeakara, M.P., 1974: "Extra-Terrestrial solar spectrum, 3000-6100 A at 1 A intervals, Appl.

OPT., 13, 518-522

Viollier, M. "Teledetection des concentrations de seston et pigments chlorophylliens contenus

dans l'Ocean", These de Doctorat d'Etat, no 503, 1980

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VanHoosier, M.E., J.D. Bartoe, G.E. Brueckner, and D.K. Prinz, 1988: "Absolute solar spectral
irradiance 120nm-400nm: Resuts from the Solar Ultraviolet Spectral Irradiance Monitor
(SUSIM) experiment on board Spacelab 2", Astro, Lett. and Communications, 27, 163-168

Wiscomb, W.J., J.W. Evans, 1977: "Exponential-Sum Fitting of Radiative Transmission

Functions", Journal of Computational Physics, 24, 416-444

Wiscombe, W.J. and and S.G. Warren, 1980: "A model for the spectral albedo of snow. I: pure
snow." J. Atmospheric Sciences, 37, 2712-2733.

Wehrli, Ch., 1985: "Extra-Terrestrial solar spectrum", Pubilication No. 615 July 1985,
Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium and World Radiation Center, CH-7260 Davos-
Dorf, Switzerland

This material is based

upon work supported by
the National Science
Foundation and the
Department of Energy

Any opinions, findings,

and conclusions or
recommendations
expressed in this
material are those of
the authors and do not
necessarily reflect the
views of the National
Science Foundation or
the Department of Energy

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