ALCF

Documentation

Lidar simulator

Introduction

The ALCF uses a modified version of COSPv1 for lidar simulation, which can be found at github.com/alcf-lidar/COSPv1. The ACTSIM lidar simulator included in COSP has been modified to account for the different viewing geometry and wavelength of a ground-based lidar.

If you want to add support for another lidar in the ALCF, you might have to calculate Mie scattering parameters for the lidar wavelength, if it is different from ones already implemented (532, 910, 1064 nm). The code for calculating the parameters is located in github.com/alcf-lidar/alcf/mie_scattering. Below is documentation on how to use this code.

Mie scattering code

The mie_scattering directory in the ALCF contains code for calculation of Mie scattering parameters required by the COSP/ACTSIM lidar simulator. The code requires Python 3 and GNU Fortran (gfortran) for running. The code is independent from the rest of the ALCF.

Overview

The code uses the Mie scattering code MIEV by Dr. Warren J. Wiscombe to calculate extinction efficiency, scattering efficiency and the scattering phase function at 180 degrees as function of particule radius. The output of MIEV is then used as input in calc_k, which calculates the backscatter-to-extinction ratio k (the inverse of the lidar ratio) by integrating over a range of radii, assuming a certain theoretical distribution of particle radii. The calculated backscatter-to-extinction ratio is used as a lookup table in the COSP/ACTSIM lidar simulator code (actsim/mie_backscatter_*.F90 files included from actsim/lidar_simulator.F90). The lidar ratio can be plotted by plot_lr.

The code should be used in the following order:

• miev
• plot_size_dist
• calc_k
• plot_lr

The variable k in the NetCDF file produced by calc_k should be the content of the lookup table actsim/mie_backscatter_*.F90, and the lookup table should be included from actsim/lidar_simulator.F90.

MIEV

miev contains the MIEV Mie scattering code by Dr. Warren J. Wiscombe (see miev/MIEV.doc for documentation). We use MIEV to calculate the extinction efficiency, scattering efficiency and the scattering phase function at 180 degrees for a range of spherical particle radii. main.f90 contains code to calculate and print these parameters.

Build (requires gfortran):

cd miev
make

Usage:

./miev <wavelength_nm>

Arguments:

• wavelength_nm – laser wavelength (nm)

The output contains a line with metadata:

• wavelength_nm – the same as above
• crefin – complex refractive index

followed by a header line (r qext qsca p180), followed by lines containing four space separated columns:

• r – particle radius (μm)
• qext – extinction efficiency (1)
• qsca – scattering efficiency (1)
• p180 – scattering phase function at 180 degrees (1)

The particle radii range from 0.1 μm to 100 μm by 0.1 μm, and radii identified as “spikes” by MIEV are ignored (not printed).

Example:

miev/miev 532 > out/miev_532
miev/miev 910 > out/miev_910
miev/miev 1064 > out/miev_1064

plot_size_dist

Plot theoretical particle size distribution (log-normal or Gamma).

Usage: bin/plot_size_dist { <type> <reff> <sigmaeff> }... <output> [num: <num>]

Arguments:

• type – distribution type: lognorm or gamma
• reff – effective radius (μm)
• sigmaeff – effective standard deviation (μm)
• output – output plot filename (PDF)

Options:

• num – Number of reff bins. Default: 100000.

Example:

bin/plot_size_dist { lognorm 20 10 } { lognorm 20 5 } { lognorm 10 5 } plot/size_dist_lognorm.pdf
bin/plot_size_dist { gamma 20 10 } { gamma 20 5 } { gamma 10 5 } plot/size_dist_gamma.pdf

calc_k

Calculate the backscatter-to-extinction ratio k (inverse of the lidar ratio) by integrating Mie scattering parameters over a range of particle radii.

Usage: bin/calc_k <input> <type> <output> [sigmaeff_ratio: <sigmaeff_ratio>]

Arguments:

• input – file containing Mie scattering parameters calculated by MIEV (see above)
• type – type of particle size distribution: lognorm or gamma
• output – output file (NetCDF)
• sigmaeff_ratio – Ratio of effective standard deviation to effective radius. Default: 0.25.

Example:

bin/calc_k out/miev_532 lognorm out/k_lognorm_532.nc
bin/calc_k out/miev_910 lognorm out/k_lognorm_910.nc
bin/calc_k out/miev_1064 lognorm out/k_lognorm_1064.nc
bin/calc_k out/miev_532 gamma out/k_gamma_532.nc
bin/calc_k out/miev_910 gamma out/k_gamma_910.nc
bin/calc_k out/miev_1064 gamma out/k_gamma_1064.nc

orig_cosp_poly

Calculate the backscatter-to-extinction ratio k based on the original COSP polynnomials (Chepfer et al., 2007; Fig. 9).

Usage: bin/orig_cosp_poly <type> <output>

Arguments:

• type – see Types below
• output – output file (NetCDF)

Types:

• liq – liquid
• ice – ice
• ice_ns – ice (NS)

Example:

bin/orig_cosp_poly liq out/k_orig_cosp_poly_liq.nc
bin/orig_cosp_poly ice out/k_orig_cosp_poly_ice.nc
bin/orig_cosp_poly ice_ns out/k_orig_cosp_poly_ice_ns.nc

The original COSP polynomials are (polpart in actsim/lidar_simulator.F90):

• liquid: 2.6980e-8*x**4 + -3.7701e-6*x**3 + 1.6594e-4*x**2 + -0.0024*x + 0.0626
• ice: -1.0176e-8*x**4 + 1.7615e-6*x**3 + -1.0480e-4*x**2 + 0.0019*x + 0.0460
• ice (NS): 1.3615e-8*x**4 + -2.04206e-6*x**3 + 7.51799e-5*x**2 + 0.00078213*x + 0.0182131

where x is the effective radius.

plot_lr

Plot lidar ratio calculated by calc_k.

Usage: bin/plot_lr <input>... <output> [xlim: { <xmin> <xmax> }] [ylim: { <ymin> <ymax> }]

Arguments:

• input – output of calc_k (NetCDF)
• output – output plot filename (PDF)
• xmin – x axis minimum (μm). Default: 5.
• xmax – x axis maximum (μm). Default: 50.
• ymin – y axis minimum (sr). Default: 10.
• ymax – y axis maximum (sr). Default: 25.

Example:

bin/plot_lr out/k_*.nc plot/lr.pdf

Figure 1 shows the result of plot_lr for k calculated by calc_k and orig_cosp_poly.