This package feeds atmosphere model output from the Community Earth System Model version 2 (CESM2) Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) into the HAWC simulator, to simulate what the Aerosol Limb Imager (ALI) on the High-altitude Aerosols, Water vapour and Clouds (HAWC) satellite would observe and retrieve for a given model atmosphere.
What it does¶
Extracts one or many atmospheric columns from WACCM output, at fixed locations or along a real HAWC orbit ground track.
Converts the MAM4 accumulation- and coarse-mode sulfate into extinction profiles using Mie databases matched to each mode’s width.
Runs the ALI forward model (
IdealALISimulator) and, optionally, the L2 retrieval.Writes retrieved aerosol extinction and median radius alongside the model “truth” for comparison.
Two install tiers¶
| Tier | Install | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| Base | pip install cesm-hawc | Extract WACCM columns and save simulator-ready input files (cesm-hawc save-inputs). Needs numpy, xarray, scipy, pandas, netCDF4 and dask. |
| Simulation | pip install "cesm-hawc[sim]" in the project’s conda environment (see Installation) | Run the forward model and L2 retrieval end to end (cesm-hawc run), via hawcsimulator and sasktran2. |
Where to go next¶
New users: Installation, then the Quickstart.
See every step on one example column: the Tutorial.
Preparing a CESM run: WACCM output variables.
Choosing how to sample the model: Run modes.
How the conversion works: Methods.
Acronyms¶
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ALI | Aerosol Limb Imager, the HAWC instrument this package simulates |
| HAWC | High-altitude Aerosols, Water vapour and Clouds satellite mission |
| CESM2 / WACCM | Community Earth System Model v2 / Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model |
| MAM4 | Four-mode Modal Aerosol Module used by CESM2 |
| h0 / h2 | CAM history file streams (here: monthly means / daily or sub-daily output) |
| L1b / L2 | Calibrated radiances / retrieved geophysical profiles |
| DoLP | Degree of linear polarization |