Description of SHARC, the Strategic High-altitude Radiance Code

Book excerpt: The Strategic High-Altitude Radiance Code (SHARC) is a new computer code that calculates atmospheric radiation and transmittance for paths from 60 to 300 km altitude in the 2-40 microns spectral region. It models radiation due to NLTE (Non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium) molecular emissions. This initial version of SHARC includes the five strongest IR radiators, NO, CO, H 2 O, O3 and CO2. This report describes the code and models used to calculate the NLTE molecular populations and the resulting atmospheric radiance. The SHARC Manual is reproduced in the appendix.