ARTS is a modular program that simulates atmospheric radiative transfer. The paper describes ARTS version 1.0, which is applicable in the absence of scattering. An overview over all major parts of the model is given: calculation of absorption coefficients, the radiative transfer itself, and the calculation of Jacobians. ARTS can be freely used under a GNU general public license.Unique features of the program are its scalability and modularity, the ability to work with different sources of spectroscopic parameters, the availability of several self-consistent water continuum and line absorption models, and the analytical calculation of Jacobians. r

[1] We compare a number of radiative transfer models for atmospheric sounding in the millimeter and submillimeter wavelength range, check their consistency, and investigate their deviations from each other. This intercomparison deals with three different aspects of radiative transfer models: (1) the inherent physics of gaseous absorption lines and how they are modeled, (2) the calculation of absorption coefficients, and (3) the full calculation of radiative transfer for different geometries, i.e., up-looking, down-looking, and limblooking. The correctness and consistency of the implementations are tested by comparing calculations with predefined input such as spectroscopic data, line shape, continuum absorption model, and frequency grid. The absorption coefficients and brightness temperatures calculated by the different models are generally within about 1% of each other. Furthermore, the variability or uncertainty of the model results is estimated if (except for the atmospheric scenario) the input such as spectroscopic data, line shape, and continuum absorption model could be chosen freely. Here the models deviate from each other by about 10% around the center of major absorption lines. The main cause of such discrepancies is the variability of reported spectroscopic data for line absorption and of the continuum absorption model. Further possible causes of discrepancies are different frequency and pressure grids and differences in the corresponding interpolation routines, as well as differences in the line shape functions used, namely a prefactor of (n/n 0 ) or (n/n 0 ) 2 of the Van-Vleck-Weisskopf line shape function. Whether or not the discrepancies affect retrieval results remains to be investigated for each application individually.Citation: Melsheimer, C., et al. (2005), Intercomparison of general purpose clear sky atmospheric radiative transfer models for the millimeter/submillimeter spectral range, Radio Sci., 40, RS1007,

In order to investigate the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UTLS) region of the earth's atmosphere, ESA/ESTEC (European space agency) is considering the opportunity to develop the spaceborne limb sounding millimeter sensor "MASTER" (millimeter wave acquisitions for stratosphere/troposphere exchange research). This instrument is part of the "atmospheric composition explorer for chemistry and climate interactions" (ACECHEM) project. In addition, ESA/ESTEC is developing the "MARSCHALS" (millimeter-wave airborne receiver for spectroscopic characterization of atmospheric limb sounding) airborne instrument which will demonstrate the feasibility of MASTER. The present paper describes the line-by-line database which was generated in order to meet at best the needs of the MASTER (or MARSCHALS) instrument. The linelist involves line positions, line intensities, line broadening and line shift parameters in the 294-305, 316-325, 342-348, 497-506 and 624-626 GHz spectral microwindows. This database was first generated for the target molecules for MASTER (H 2 O, O 3 , N 2 O, CO, O 2 , HNO 3 , HCl, ClO, CH 3 Cl, BrO). In addition, ten additional molecules (SO 2 , NO 2 , OCS, H 2 CO, HOCl, HCN, H 2 O 2 , COF 2 , HO 2 and HOBr) had also to be considered in the database as "possible interfering species" for the retrieval of the target molecules of MASTER. The line parameters were derived, depending on their estimated accuracy, (i) from a combination of spectral parameters included in the JPL and HITRAN catalogs (ii) from data taken into the literature or (iii) using data obtained through experimental measurements (and/or) calculations performed during the present study.

The purpose of this paper is to perform a detailed error analysis for a mm/sub-mm limb sounding instrument with respect to spectroscopic parameters. This is done in order to give some insight into the most crucial spectroscopic parameters and to work out a list of recommendations for measurements that would yield the largest possible benefit for an accurate retrieval. The investigations cover a variety of spectroscopic line parameters, such as line intensity, line position, air and self broadening parameters and their temperature exponents, and pressure shift. The retrieval process is performed with the optimal estimation method (OEM). The OEM allows one to perform an assessment of the total statistical error, as well as of the model parameter error, such as the error coming from spectroscopic parameters. The instrument parameters assumed are those of the MASTER instrument studied by the European Space Agency, one of the candidate instruments for a future atmospheric chemistry mission. However, the same principle and method of analysis can be applied to any other millimeter/sub-millimeter limb sounding instrument, for instance the Japanese instrument JEM/SMILES, the Swedish instrument Odin, and the Earth Observing System Microwave Limb Sounder. We find that an uncertainty in the intensity of the strong lines give an error of similar magnitude on the retrieved species to which the lines belong. Uncertainties in the line position have overall a small impact on the retrieval, indicating that the line positions are known with sufficient accuracy. The air broadening parameters and their temperature exponents of a few strong lines dominate the error budget. On the other hand, the self broadening parameters and the pressure shifts are found to have a rather small impact on the retrieval.

[1] Passive microwave limb sounding instruments like the Millimeter-Wave Atmospheric Sounder (MAS) or the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) observe dedicated oxygen lines for the derivation of temperature and pointing information, since these quantities are essential for the quality of the retrieval of the trace gas mixing ratio. Emission lines of oxygen are chosen because the volume mixing ratio (VMR) profile is known. In this paper, we demonstrate the capabilities of a new and innovative method by means of which accurate temperature and pointing information can be gathered from other strong spectral features like ozone lines, without including accurate knowledge of the VMR profile of these species. For this purpose, retrievals from two observation bands with a bandwidth of about 10 GHz each, one including an oxygen line, have been compared. A full error analysis was performed with respect to critical instrument and model parameters, such as uncertainties in the antenna pattern, calibration uncertainties, random pointing error, baseline ripples, baseline discontinuities, and spectroscopic parameters. The applied inversion algorithm was the optimal estimation method. For the selected scenario and instrumental specifications we find that the retrieval of a pointing offset and the atmospheric temperature profile can be achieved with a good accuracy. The retrieval precision of the pointing offset is better than 24 m. The retrieval precision of the temperature profile is better than 2 K for altitudes ranging from 10 to 40 km. Systematic errors (due to model parameter uncertainties) are somewhat larger than these purely statistical errors. Investigations carried out for different atmospheric states or different instrumental specifications show similar results.