Flexible, Longwave Radiative Transfer (FLRT) in Clear and Cloudy Atmospheres

This paper introduces a flexible, longwave radiative transfer tool (FLRT), which can be used to create a correlated-k, multiple-scattering model for inhomogeneous atmospheres. The spectral bandwidths can be chosen by the user within the 10 to 3000 wavenumber range. FLRT provides a mechanism from which rapid radiative transfer models (RRTMs) can be generated. Rapid radiative transfer models permit accelerated calculations of radiances, fluxes and cooling rates without comprising accuracy. Such models have a variety of atmospheric radiative transfer applications. One application includes modeling radiance measurements in spectral channels of satellite or ground-based sensors.