VLIDORT User's Guide

IN NO EVENT SHALL RT SOLUTIONS BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY FOR DIRECT,INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUTOF THE USE OF THE VLIDORT SOFTWARE IN VERSION 2.6 AND ITSDOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF RT SOLUTIONS INC. HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THEPOSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY ANDPERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS WITH THE USER.BECAUSE THE VLIDORT PROGRAM VERSION 2.6 IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE,THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BYAPPLICABLE LAW.EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THECOPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS"WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED,INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OFMERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. RT SOLUTIONSHAS NO OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT, UPDATES,ENHANCEMENTS OR MODIFICATIONS TO THE VLIDORT SOFTWARE IN VERSION2.6.4.6. AcknowledgmentsAt SAO in 2004, the author was funded through an Ozone SAF Visiting Scientist Grant, P-5712-12-03. At RT Solutions in 2005, R. Spurr was funded through another Ozone SAF VisitingScientist Grant. Funding in 2006 and thereafter has come from subcontracts with SSAI under theaegis of NASA-GSFC.Thanks to Jukka Kujanpaa at FMI for help with testing the code for the UV Surface algorithmand providing some useful feedback and code optimizations. Thanks also to Vijay Natraj ofCaltech for extensive testing of VLIDORT in a demanding environment (the O 2 A Band), and forinsights regarding the no-azimuth conditions. Special thanks also to Knut Stamnes (StevensInstitute) for stimulating discussions about the issue of complex eigenvectors in the vectorequations. Mick Christi of CSU is also acknowledged for a number of discussions regardingFourier series convergence and the use of a direct-beam correction. Thanks to Johan de Haan(KNMI) for providing the Meerhoff Mie program.Extensive validation of VLIDORT has taken place at NASA GSFC and SSAI in the last 3 years.There are a number of users at both institutions. In particular, R. Spurr would like to thank ColinSeftor (SSAI) for validation testing against the TOMRAD model, and Dave Haffner andChangwoo Ahn (both of SSAI) for feedback on usage in an operational environment. Also fortesting with aerosols, I would like to acknowledge Arlindo da Silva, Virginie Bouchard, OmarTorres, Hiren Jethva, Xiong Liu, Nick Krotkov, Kai Yang, Sasha Vasilkov and Clark Weaver.Special thanks to P.K. Bhartia and Joanna Joiner for continuing support.In the present document, Chapters 4 and 6 have been extensively revised in the light of theFortran 90 translation and associated use of newly defined input and output Type structures. Theauthor is indebted to Mick Christi for assistance with this revision.76