Efficient use of an improved radiative transfer code to simulate near-global distributions of satellite-measured radiances

Two new extension modules that give the water-leaving radiance from the ocean and the snow bidirectional reflectance distribution function were implemented in the latest radiative transfer code. In addition, to simulate the near-global distributions of satellite-measured radiances by using the improved radiative transfer code, we tested and applied the look-up table method together with the process-separation technique of the radiative transfer calculation. The computing time was reduced from 1 year to 20 s to simulate one channel, one scene of the Global Imager image by use of an Alpha 21164A-2 (600-MHz) machine. The error analyses showed that the radiances were simulated with less than 1% error for the nonabsorbing visible channels and ∼2% error for absorbing channels by use of this method.