Tabulation of Mie scattering calculation results for microwave radiative transfer modeling

Abstract

In microwave radiative transfer model simulations, the Mie calculations usually consume the majority of the computer time necessary for the calculations (70 to 86 percent for frequencies ranging from 6.6 to 183 GHz). For a large array of atmospheric profiles, the repeated calculations of the Mie codes make the radiative transfer computations not only expensive, but sometimes impossible. It is desirable, therefore, to develop a set of Mie tables to replace the Mie codes for the designated ranges of temperature and frequency in the microwave radiative transfer calculation. Results of using the Mie tables in the transfer calculations show that the total CPU time (IBM 3081) used for the modeling simulation is reduced by a factor of 7 to 16, depending on the frequency. The tables are tested by computing the upwelling radiance of 144 atmospheric profiles generated by a 3-D cloud model (Tao, 1986). Results are compared with those using Mie quantities computed from the Mie codes. The bias and root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) of the model results using the Mie tables, in general, are less than 1 K except for 37 and 90 GHz. Overall, neither the bias nor RMSD is worse than 1.7 K for any frequency and any viewing angle