Error simulation of atmospheric scattered radiance and its influence on slant visibility based on the SBDART model and Monte Carlo method

Abstract

Atmospheric scattered radiance is an important factor affecting slant visibility measurement in the daytime. This paper explores atmospheric scattered radiance errors and their influence on slant visibility measurements. Considering the difficulty in error synthesis of the radiative transfer equation, an error simulation scheme based on the Monte Carlo method is proposed. An error simulation and error analysis for atmospheric scattered radiance was carried out based on the Santa Barbara DISTORT atmospheric radiative transfer (SBDART) model and the Monte Carlo method. The error in aerosol parameters including the single-scattering albedo (SSA), the asymmetry factor, and the aerosol optical depth (AOD), was simulated by a random number and random error under different normal distributions, and the error influence of aerosol parameters on the error in the solar irradiance and 33-layer atmosphere scattered radiance is discussed in detail. The maximum relative deviations of the output scattered radiance at a certain slant direction are 5.98%, 1.47%, and 2.35%, when SSA, the asymmetry factor, and the AOD obey the normal distribution of (0, 5). The error sensitivity analysis also confirms that the SSA is the most sensitive factor affecting atmospheric scattered radiance and the total solar irradiance. Then, according to the error synthesis theory, we investigated the error transfer effect of three error sources related to the atmosphere based on the contrast ratio between the object and the background. The simulation results show that the error in the contrast ratio caused by solar irradiance and scattered radiance is lower than 6.2% and 2.84%, indicating the main role in contributing to the error transfer of slant visibility. Further, the comprehensive process of the error transfer in slant visibility measurements was demonstrated by a set of lidar experiments and the SBDART model. The results provide a reliable theoretical basis for the measurement of atmospheric scattered radiance and slant visibility, which is of great significance to improve the measurement accuracy of slant visibility.