ARTS Microwave Single Scattering Properties Database

The database contains microwave single scattering data, mainly of ice hydrometeors. Main applications lie in microwave remote sensing, both passive and active. Covered hydrometeors range from pristine ice crystals to large aggregates, graupel and hail, 34 types in total. Furthermore, 34 frequencies from 1 to 886 GHz, and 3 temperatures, 190, 230 and 270 K, are included. The main article orientation is currently totally random (i.e. each orientation is equally probable), but the database is designed to also handle azimuthally orientation, and data for this orientation case will be added in the future. Mie code was used for the two completely spherical habits, while the bulk of data were calculated using the discrete dipole approximation method (DDA).

Interfaces for easy user access is available under a separate upload, due to different licensing, under the title ARTS Microwave Single Scattering Properties Database Interfaces. Interfaces in MATLAB and Python are available, supporting browsing and importing of the data. There is also functionality for extracting data for usage in RTTOV.

A description of the database is also available in the following article. Please cite it if you use the database for a publication.

Eriksson, P., R. Ekelund, J. Mendrok, M. Brath, O. Lemke, and S. A. Buehler (2018), A general database of hydrometeor single scattering properties at microwave and sub-millimetre wavelengths, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 10, 1301–1326, doi: 10.5194/essd-10-1301-2018.

New version 1.1.0 released: Database, technical report and readme document updated. It is highly recommended to download both the new interface and database versions.

-Added three new habits: two liquid habits with azimuthally random orientation and one new bullet rosette with totally random orientation (with IDs from 35 to 37).

-Updated Python and MATLAB interface to accommodate azimuthally random oriented data and with some other minor updates.

-DDA calculations at frequencies under 100 GHz have been re-calculated using higher EPS settings, in order to accommodate radar applications (see technical report, Sec. 4.1.1).

-The tolerance of the extinction cross-section post-calculation check is now 10 % instead of 30 % (see bullet 5 in technical report, Sec. 4.4.1.1). Those calculations that could not meet the stricter criteria were recalculated using higher EPS setting.

-Format of standard habits revised. The weighting applied to the large habit at each size is now available in the in the mat-files.

-Fixed wrong index for GEM hail in specifications table.