Dear Colleagues,

you receive this eMail because you are either a user of the radiative transfer package libRadtran or because we think that you might be interested in this information. Should you not be interested in receiving further information, please let us know.

Attached to this eMail is the 20th libRadtran Newsletter. The main issue of this Newsletter is to announce the new version,

           *** libRadtran 2.0.5 ***

which includes some improvements and bug fixes compared to version
2.0.4. Probably the most important is the long-desired port to
Python3. Python 2 is no longer required to compile libRadtran.

Have fun, 
Bernhard Mayer, Claudia Emde, and Arve Kylling.

/*----------------------------------------------------------------
 * libRadtran Newsletter No. 20
 *
 * July 25, 2023
 *
 * Bernhard Mayer (bernhard.mayer_at_lmu.de)
 * Claudia Emde   (claudia.emde_at_lmu.de)
 * Arve Kylling   (arve.kylling_at_gmail.com)
 *
 * ### More info: http://www.libradtran.org ###
 *----------------------------------------------------------------*/

Dear libRadtran users,

this release contains a few small but important updates. 

*** Changes:

* New wavelength parameterization for integrated thermal irradiance, 
  see DeMourgues et al, 2023, https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos14020332

  Usage:
     mol_abs_param reptran int
     repint_option demourgues30

  The method calculates integrated thermal irradiance using a weighted sum 
  of monochromatic calculations, see publication.

* New approximate solver for the thermal spectral range: 
  "rte_solver schwarzschild“ neglects scattering and calculates irradiance by 
  solving the Schwarzschild equation for 10 zenith angles and integrating.

* Finally, python2 is no longer needed to compile libRadtran. Everything 
  was translated to python3, except for the GUI (graphical user interface)
  which is not operational anymore at the moment. 


*** Reminders:

* For simulations with clouds and/or aerosols we strongly recommend
  to get the additional optical properties data from the Download area,
  which are much more accurate than the defaults, in particular for radiance simulations. 
  You may also obtain data for the higher resolution reptran grids 
  (reptran medium/fine)
   
And now, have fun!