The ISSWG line-by-line inter-comparison experiment

Abstract To document the performance of current line-by-line radiative transfer models, a study was performed to compare the model simulations with real observations and also inter-compare the simulations themselves. Two broadband mid-IR observed spectra with high spectral resolution were analyzed. The observations were done in nadir mode, and at the same time the atmospheric state was carefully monitored. The first dataset consisted of radiance observations using the HIS interferometer during the CAMEX-1 campaign off the east coast of the USA. The second dataset consisted of observations from the ARIES interferometer collected during the Ascension Island campaign over the tropical Atlantic. These two cases are very different with the Ascension Island case being much warmer and more humid than the CAMEX case. In total 13 different research groups participated with seven different line-by-line models. The results of this study indicated that in many spectral regions the models are capable of reproducing the observations to within the observed noise. In some spectral regions relatively large differences between the simulations and observations exist.