Advanced Radiative Transfer Modeling System (ARMS) Developed for Satellite Data Assimilation in Earth System Modeling and Prediction

An updated vector discrete ordinate radiative transfer (VDISORT) model is developed for the advanced radiative transfer modeling system (ARMS). By updating the theory of solving process, the widely-used azimuthal symmetric assumption is avoided so that the updated VDISORT can fully couple the general atmospheric scattering and surface reflection. The model shows good accuracies with several benchmarks. Tests show that the azimuthally symmetric assumption can bring obvious errors into the simulated radiance such as its magnitudes of peaks and its signal distributions. It indicates the anisotropic properties should get attention during the satellite simulations and applications.