Dear Colleagues,

you receive this eMail because you are either a user of the radiative transfer package libRadtran or because we think that you might be interested in this information. Should you not be interested in receiving further information, please let us know.

Attached to this eMail is the 21st libRadtran Newsletter. The main issue of this Newsletter is to announce the new version,

           *** libRadtran 2.0.6 ***

which includes some improvements and bug fixes compared to version 2.0.5. 

Let us first wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy and successful new year! 

Have fun, 
Bernhard Mayer, Claudia Emde, and Arve Kylling.

/*----------------------------------------------------------------
 * libRadtran Newsletter No. 21
 *
 * December 24, 2024
 *
 * Bernhard Mayer (bernhard.mayer_at_lmu.de)
 * Claudia Emde   (claudia.emde_at_lmu.de)
 * Arve Kylling   (arve.kylling_at_gmail.com)
 *
 * ### More info: http://www.libradtran.org ###
 *----------------------------------------------------------------*/

Dear libRadtran users,

merry Christmas and a good start into the New Year! 

In an attempt to continue an old tradition, a new libRadtran
version is released as a Christmas gift. The change in version
number is not that big, and the changes are neither. Nevertheless,
there is a number of new features:

* The REPTRAN database has been updated; Meteosat 3rd Generation FCI
   is now avaiable.

* BPDFs (Bidirectional Polarization Distribution Functions) have been added
   which are needed to consider the angular-dependent surface reflectance
   for polarized radiance. Two BPDF models are now available: 
   bpdf_litvinov (Litvinov et al., 2012) and bpdf_maignan (Maignan et al., 2009). 
   These combine BPDF models with the Fresnel surface reflection matrix.

* The HAMSTER (Hyperspectral Albedo Maps dataset with high Spatial and
   TEmporal Resolution) by Roccetti et al (AMT, 2024) is now available at the
    Download page. 

* The mie tool now allows computation of single scattering properties
   for very large droplets even in the order of 1mm. "phase_from_amplitudes"
   is slower for small size parameters but considerably faster for very large
   size parameters. We used it to calculate rainbows produced by real rain
   droplets of 1mm radius.

* The list of "Publications that cite libRadtran" has been updated and includes
   now all 1136 refereed publications which used libRadtran to date.


*** Reminders:

* For simulations with clouds and/or aerosols we strongly recommend
  to get the additional optical properties data for water and ice clouds
  and aerosols from the Download area. These are much more accurate than
  the defaults, in particular for radiance simulations. You may also obtain data
  for the higher resolution reptran grids (reptran medium/fine) plus
  parameterizations for a variety of satellite channels.
   
And now, have fun!