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| DISORT | |
|---|---|
| Name | DISORT |
| Developer | Atmospheric and Environmental Research; National Center for Atmospheric Research; Laboratory for Atmospheres |
| Released | 1980s |
| Latest release | ongoing |
| Programming language | Fortran |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Genre | Radiative transfer solver |
| License | Varied (see Licensing and Distribution) |
DISORT DISORT is a widely used discrete-ordinate radiative transfer solver for one-dimensional plane-parallel layered media, developed to model multiple scattering, absorption, and emission in atmospheres and participating media. It provides numerical solutions to the radiative transfer equation used in satellite remote sensing, climate modeling, atmospheric correction, and optical engineering. The package has been integrated into numerous scientific workflows across institutions, space agencies, and research programs.
DISORT solves the one-dimensional integrodifferential radiative transfer equation for polarized and unpolarized radiance using discrete-ordinate methods originally derived from transport theory. The software interfaces with atmospheric composition datasets, aerosol models, cloud microphysics parameterizations, and surface reflectance descriptions maintained by organizations such as National Aeronautics and Space Administration, European Space Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Met Office, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Users apply DISORT within processing chains developed by National Center for Atmospheric Research, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique, and CSIRO for retrievals, forward modeling, and sensitivity studies.
Development traces to numerical transport research in the 1960s and 1970s influenced by work at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and academic groups such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton University. The formal DISORT project coalesced through collaborations among scientists at Naval Research Laboratory, NASA Ames Research Center, NCAR, and industry partners including Atmospheric and Environmental Research during the 1980s and 1990s. Subsequent enhancements drew on algorithmic advances promoted at conferences like the American Geophysical Union fall meeting and the European Geosciences Union assembly, and from code contributions by researchers affiliated with Columbia University, University of Oxford, ETH Zurich, University of Colorado Boulder, and Imperial College London.
DISORT implements the discrete-ordinate method with numerical stabilization techniques adapted from neutron transport and radiative transfer theory developed by figures associated with Los Alamos National Laboratory and mathematicians linked to Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. The code employs Gauss quadrature, eigenvalue decompositions, and linear algebra routines similar to those used in packages from Netlib collections and libraries developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It handles phase function representations derived from Mie theory used in work at University of Arizona and T-matrix formulations advanced at University of Maryland. The angular discretization and scattering-order truncation strategies reflect theoretical foundations advanced by scholars at University of Cambridge and California Institute of Technology.
Implemented primarily in Fortran with bindings used in Python and IDL workflows, DISORT integrates with data formats and toolkits supported by European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and USGS. Features include spectral band handling compatible with sensor teams from MODIS project, VIIRS program, Landsat Science Team, and Sentinel missions, as well as interfaces to aerosol and cloud libraries from AERONET archives, ECMWF Reanalysis products, and radiative kernels employed in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessments. Numerical stability and runtime performance are influenced by linear algebra backends like libraries from Netlib and optimized compilers from Intel Corporation and GNU Project.
DISORT underpins radiative transfer calculations in satellite retrievals conducted by teams at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, EUMETSAT, NOAA Satellite and Information Service, and regional agencies such as JAXA and ISRO. It is used in climate research at IPCC contributing groups, paleoclimate modeling at Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and aerosol-cloud interaction studies at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Other applications include atmospheric correction for ocean color from NOAA CoastWatch and ESA Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative, radiative forcing diagnostics in studies by Hadley Centre, and optical sensor design by research groups at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories.
Validation studies compare DISORT outputs to benchmark solutions and measurements from field campaigns such as ARM (Atmospheric Radiation Measurement), ACE-Asia, SAFARI 2000, and satellite intercomparisons led by GSFC teams. Performance assessments juxtapose DISORT with other radiative transfer models developed at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Laboratoire d'Optique Atmosphérique, and groups producing codes like SHDOM, Monte Carlo solvers from Lund University, and two-stream approximations used by Hadley Centre. Benchmarks evaluate accuracy for phase functions from Mie and T-matrix codes produced by University of Helsinki and runtime scaling on HPC systems at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center.
Distribution historically occurred via academic networks, FTP archives maintained by University of Wisconsin–Madison and NCAR, and code repositories coordinated with developers at Atmospheric and Environmental Research. Licensing has ranged from permissive academic redistribution to curated releases with contributor agreements used by organizations such as NOAA and NASA. Deployments often bundle DISORT within community toolkits maintained by Python Software Foundation ecosystems, Unidata, and satellite data processing suites from European Space Research and Technology Centre.
Category:Radiative transfer