Here is the most recent version 1.5-beta from February 2, 2010 (“groundhog release”). The new version has several new features compared to the last release 1.4 from December 24, 2008, see Newsletter 11.

Older versions are also still available (if asked for username and password, please try libRadtran for both).

If you download the package we ask you to send us a short eMail to let us know that you use the model. We have created a mailing list of libRadtran users in order to notify them of additions, changes, and bug fixes on an irregular basis.

    gzip -d libradtran-x.yy.tar.gz
    tar -xvf libradtran-x.yy.tar

    cd libRadtran-x.yy
    ./configure
     make

    make check (make sure to use GNU make)

• Optical properties of water and ice clouds in netcdf format. Please untar these data in the libRadtran directory. And please be aware that the format has changed between libRadtran 1.4 and 1.5-beta; if you need the older data, please check here.
• OPAC aerosol optical properties, to be used with aerosol_species_library OPAC (updated February 2, 2010!). Please untar these data in the libRadtran directory.
• An example for a line-by-line absorption cross section profile for the oxygen A-Band around 760 nm; UVSPEC.O2A.afglms.cdf can be used as molecular_tau_file, see the libRadtran documentation of this option.
• For the brave and strong, we also offer line-by-line absorption data for the spectral range 500 nm - 100 micron. Check the README!.
• Scripts to compute line-by-line absorption coefficients: Py4CATS

The following software is required to successfully compile, link and run all of the libRadtran tools:

• GNU make. The compilation might work with other make programs, but usually it doesn't.
• The GNU C compiler (gcc). Other compilers might also work.
• A Fortran compiler that is compatible with the C compiler. If a C compatible Fortran compiler is not available, f2c will do the job.
• Flex - The Fast Lexical Analyzer. Is usually available for all flavours of Linux, under Mac, and for cygwin, but not necessarily installed by default. You may have to select installation of flex manually.
• The Perl programming language, version 5.004 or later, is required to run the automatic test.

That's it. The example files and the documentation should give you enough knowledge to get started.

Users of Windows 95/98/NTXP/Vista/7 systems are asked to consult the installation of libRadtran under Windows instructions. Compilation under Windows is possible with only little more effort than on a Unix system. Please notice that we haven't updated this README (essentially because of laziness) because the Cygwin Stuff changes continuously - but we are sure that you will find your way!