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RTTOV v12 development and longer-term plans for RTTOV

RTTOV v11 was released in May 2013 by the NWP SAF. Incremental updates v11.2 and v11.3 were released in June 2014 and September 2015 respectively.

The next major release (v12) is planned for Decemeber 2016. A brief overview of the planned features is given below: comments are welcome.

RTTOV v12 developments
  • Scientific changes
    • Multiple-scattering simulations for visible/near-IR channels
    • Allow SO2 as an optional trace gas
    • Updated sea surface IR emissivity model (the existing ISEM model will be retained as an option in v12 and removed in v13)
    • Update the IR land surface emissivity atlas with the new combined MODIS+ASTER ("MODAST") dataset developed by U. Wisconsin/JPL
    • Extension of PC-RTTOV simulations to all trace gases and aerosols
    • Offer the option of mixing ratio for the input unit for cloud and aerosol in IR scattering simulations
    • Provide interface to the HT-FRTC fast PC-based RT model: this will enable simulations of unapodised/self-apodised radiances
    • Plan to investigate possible improvements to water vapour optical depth prediction in the VIS/IR outside the IASI spectral range
    • Remove old hexagonal/aggregrate and Baran 2013 ice parameterisations for IR cloudy simulations (the Baran 2014 parameterisation will remain)
    • Produce coefficient files which can account for the variation in trace gases such as CO2 over the whole satellite era
    • RTTOV GUI will be kept up to date with new RTTOV developments
  • Technical changes
    • Extend the capabilities of the Python/C++ interface (enable calls to RTTOV-SCATT and PC-RTTOV)
    • Update to the FORTRAN2003 standard
    • Land surface BRDF and IR emissivity atlases will ONLY be available in HDF5 format (no netCDF dependence in RTTOV which will simplify compilation)
    • More efficient code particularly on scalar supercomputer architectures
    • Removal of some redundant options and some changes to interface to improve consistency (all changes from v11 will be clearly documented)
Longer-term developments
  • UV simulation capability
  • Improvements to VIS/NIR/IR scattering simulations
  • Improvements to RTTOV_SCATT simulations for MW radiances affected by hydrometeors
  • Update LBL transmittance databases
  • Updates to ocean and land surface emissivity
  • Further code optimisation
  • Investigate possibility of making RTTOV available via Linux package management systems (e.g. RedHat RPM, Debian package)

To comment or to suggest future enhancements to RTTOV, please use the NWP SAF feedback form.