Scalable Multi-Group Full-Spectrum Correlated-k Distributions for Radiative Transfer Calculations

Abstract

A new full-spectrum k-distribution method has been developed, in which spectral locations are sorted into M spectral groups, according to their absorption coefficient dependence on (partial) pressure and temperature. Calculating correlated-k full-spectrum k-distributions for each of the M groups, LBL accuracy can be obtained with M⩽32. Database values have been assembled for CO2 mixtures at atmospheric pressure. The method is fully scalable, i.e., spectral groups from the database can be combined to obtain coarser group models M=1,2,4,… for greater numerical efficiency (accompanied by slight loss in accuracy).