Atmospheres & Climate

Radiative Transfer and Inversion codes for Characterizing Planetary Atmospheres: An Overview

By Keith Cowing

Status Report

astro-ph.EP

November 1, 2023

Filed under astro-ph.EP, atmosphere

Radiative Transfer and Inversion codes for Characterizing Planetary Atmospheres: An Overview — Example of forward model and retrieval applied to the case of HCN in Titan: Left: comparison between observed and best-fit simulated HCN (3-2) lines (black and red, respectively, upper panel), and the difference between the observed and fitted spectra (lower panel). Right: retrieved temperature and HCN distribution derived from the spectrum. The black and red lines, and the pink shadow show the initial and retrieved profiles, and the error bars, respectively. Figure based on Fig. 1 in Rengel et al. 2022 — astro-ph.EP

The study of planetary atmospheres is crucial for understanding the origin, evolution, and processes that shape celestial bodies like planets, moons and comets.

The interpretation of planetary spectra requires a detailed understanding of radiative transfer (RT) and its application through computational codes. With the advancement of observations, atmospheric modelling, and inference techniques, diverse RT and retrieval codes in planetary science have been proliferated.

However, the selection of the most suitable code for a given problem can be challenging. To address this issue, we present a comprehensive mini-overview of the different RT and retrieval codes currently developed or available in the field of planetary atmospheres.

This study serves as a valuable resource for the planetary science community by providing a clear and accessible list of codes, and offers a useful reference for researchers and practitioners in their selection and application of RT and retrieval codes for planetary atmospheric studies.

Miriam Rengel, Jakob Adamczewski

Comments: 10 pages, 1 figure, published in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences. this https URL
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
Cite as: arXiv:2310.19476 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2310.19476v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2310.19476
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Journal reference: Front. Astron. Space Sci. 30 May 2023. Sec. Planetary Science
Related DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3389/fspas.2023.1176740
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Submission history
From: Miriam Rengel
[v1] Mon, 30 Oct 2023 12:02:59 UTC (2,147 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.19476
Astrobiology

Keith Cowing

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻

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