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Molecular atmospheres

Molecular atmospheres#

Molecular atmospheres denote the molecular component of heterogeneous atmospheres. Molecular atmospheres are characterised by the atmosphere’s thermophysical properties from which are computed the collision coefficients, and by a phase function.

Thermophysical properties#

Molecular atmosphere objects are created from a thermophysical properties data set.

Pre-defined#

The following atmospheric thermophysical properties models are pre-defined:

  • U.S. Standard Atmosphere, 1976 [NASA et al., 1976]

  • AFGL Atmospheric Constituent Profiles (0-120km) [Anderson et al., 1986] including its six reference atmospheres:

    • Tropical

    • Midlatitude Summer

    • Midlatitude Winter

    • Subarctic Summer

    • Subarctic Winter

    • U.S. Standard

Warning

U.S. Standard Atmosphere, 1976 and U.S. Standard are not the same.

Although they are pre-defined, these thermophysical properties can be customised by changing the altitude grid as well as the concentration of the different molecules—currently H₂O, CO₂ and O₃—in the atmosphere.

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