Articles | Volume 11, issue 7
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-2717-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-2717-2018
Model description paper
 | 
10 Jul 2018
Model description paper |  | 10 Jul 2018

An update on the RTTOV fast radiative transfer model (currently at version 12)

Roger Saunders, James Hocking, Emma Turner, Peter Rayer, David Rundle, Pascal Brunel, Jerome Vidot, Pascale Roquet, Marco Matricardi, Alan Geer, Niels Bormann, and Cristina Lupu

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Cited articles

Aires, F., Prigent, C., Bernardo, F., Jiménez, C., Saunders, R., and Brunel, P.: A Tool to Estimate Land-Surface Emissivities at Microwave frequencies (TELSEM) for use in numerical weather prediction, Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 137, 690–699, 2011.
Andersson, E., Haseler, J., Undén, P., Courtier, P., Kelly, G., Vasiljevic, D., Brankovic, C., Gaffard, C., Hollingsworth, A., Jakob, C., Janssen, P., Klinker, E., Lanzinger, A., Miller, M., Rabier, F., Simmons, A., Strauss, B., Viterbo, P., Cardinali, C., and Thépaut, J.-N.: The ECMWF implementation of three-dimensional variational assimilation (3D-Var). III: Experimental results, Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 124, 1831–1860, https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.49712455004, 1998.
Andrey-Andrés, J., Fourrié, N., Guidard, V., Armante, R., Brunel, P., Crevoisier, C., and Tournier, B.: A simulated observation database to assess the impact of the IASI-NG hyperspectral infrared sounder, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 803–818, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-803-2018, 2018.
Baran, A. J., Francis, P. N., Labonnote, L.-C., and Doutriaux-Boucher, M.: A scattering phase function for ice cloud: Tests of applicability using aircraft and satellite multi-angle multi-wavelength radiance measurements of cirrus, Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 127, 2395–2416, 2001.
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Short summary
This paper describes a fast atmospheric radiative transfer model, RTTOV, which is widely used in the satellite retrieval and weather forecast model assimilation communities. It computes top-of-atmosphere radiances for visible, infrared and microwave downward-viewing satellite radiometers. It enables the satellite data, which are a key part of the observing system, to be optimally used with forecast models. The developments made to RTTOV over the past 20 years are summarised.
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