An Evaluation of the LOWTRAN 6 Navy Maritime Aerosol Model Using 8- to 12-Micrometers Sky Radiances.

• Main Author: Hughes,Herbert G
• Other Authors: NAVAL OCEAN SYSTEMS CENTER SAN DIEGO CA
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1986
• Subjects: Atmospheric Physics; *RADIANCE; *INFRARED RADIATION; MATHEMATICAL MODELS; ALGORITHMS; COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION; LIGHT SCATTERING; OPTICAL PROPERTIES; PARTICLE SIZE; AEROSOLS; MODELS; DISTRIBUTION; COMPARISON; INFRARED IMAGES; WIND VELOCITY; SKY; METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA; RADIOSONDES; OCEANS; OCEAN ENVIRONMENTS; ATMOSPHERE MODELS; HORIZON; LOWTRAN 6 computer program; WUSXB3; WUDN888715; PE62759N; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA179817; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA179817

Measurements of infrared (8-12 micrometers) sky radiances over the ocean are compared with those calculated by LOWTRAN 6 by means of the Maritime Aerosol Model along with simultaneously measured (radiosonde) meteorological parameters and atmospheric radon concentrations. For a low wind-speed condition, the measured and calculated radiances agreed within 2% at the optical horizon. However, during moderate wind-speed conditions, the current wind speed component of the aerosol model had to be lowered by factors near 20 in order to produce agreement of the calculated and measured radiances. The adjusted model is then found to agree closely with published results of large particle size distribution measurements in the North Atlantic. Keywords: Optical scattering; Atmospheric modeling; Aerosol size distribution; Radiance algorithm; Infrared radiance; Thermal imaging.