# ISKClimatology¶

The ISKClimatology interface is used to describe climatologies used in the radiative transfer models. The climatologies typically specify the number density of a given optically active species at various locations in the Earth’ s atmosphere and when combined with the cross-section data from the ISKOpticalProperty interface allows the optical depth of atmospheric rays to be calculated.

The ISKClimatology interface is much more flexible than just providing number densities, it can be used and extended to provide any scalar value at any location in the atmosphere. In addition one ISKClimatology object can provide more than one scalar, a frequent example is that models supporting atmospheric state will provide temperature, pressure and number density.

The ISKClimatology objects implement the concept of caching. Almost all climatological models and databases incur some overhead penalty when the user requests information from different times and locations in the atmosphere. In some models, such as user supplied tables, the overhead is insignificant but in other models, such as raw ECMWF files, the overhead can be very large. The ISKClimatology interface manages this issue by requesting that each ISKClimatology model update its internal cache before returning any atmospheric parameters. The size and nature of the cache is left to specific ISKClimatology object to decide but it is expected that all caches will store at least a vertical profile at the requested location.

## Class ISKClimatology Methods¶

class ISKClimatology

ISKClimatology(name)

The ISKClimatology constructor:

>>> import sasktranif.sasktranif as skif
>>>
>>> climate  = skif.ISKClimatology('MSIS90')

param str name: The name of the climatology to be created. The name must correspond to an installed sasktranif climatology.

IsValidObject() → ok

Used to identify if the underlying C++ climatology is properly created. The function is primarily intended for internal usage:

ok = climate.IsValidObject();

Parameters: ok (boolean) – The return value, true if the C++ object is properly constructed otehrwise false. returns true if successful

UpdateCache(location) → ok

Instructs the climatology to update its internal cache given a specific location and time. All subsequent calls to GetParameter will use the internal cache. The size and structure of the internal cache varies from one climatology to another. Simple user-defined height profiles, for example, don’t do anything in response to UpdateCache request as the height profile “is” the cache. At the other end of the spectrum ECMWF climatologies load in two snapshots of the entire globe that straddle the time of interest at all pressure levels within the model. Many intermediate climatologies load in a single profile at the requested location and time and it is desirable that single profile is used for all subsequent calls to GetParameter:

ok = climate.UpdateCache ( location );

Parameters: location (GEODETIC_INSTANT) – The location and instant in time for which the cache is required. The GEODETIC_INSTANT is a 4 element array [latitude, longitude, height_meters, mjd]. Latitude and longitude are geodetic coordinates in degrees, height_meters is height above sea-level in meters and mjd is Modified Julian Date expressed in days. ok (boolean) – returns true if successful returns true if successful

SetProperty(propertyname, value) → ok

Set custom properties of the climatology. The user must refer to documentation about the specific climatology object to see what properties it supports:

ok = climate.SetProperty(propertyname, value)

Parameters: propertyname (string) – The name of the custom property to be modified. value (double/array/object) – The new value of the property. The value must be a scalar double, array of doubles or a SasktranIF object ok (boolean) – returns true if successful returns true if successful

GetParameter(species, location) → value

Fetch the value of the species at location. The climatology instance must support the requested species and it will extract the value from the cached data (see UpdateCache):

ok,value = climate.GetParameter (species, location)

Parameters: species (string) – The identification code of the required species. The climatology must support this species. location (GEODETIC_INSTANT) – The location in space and time for which the value is required. See UpdateCache for a description of GEODETIC_INSTANT. Note that the value will be extracted by appropriate interpolation of the existing cache but does not update the current cache. ok (boolean) – The first value of the returned list. true if successful otehrwise false value (double) – The second value of the returned list. The value of the parameter at the requested location. Climatologies may return this value as NaN if the interpolation request was inappropriate. A two element list [ok, value]

GetHeightProfile(species, location, altitudes) → value

Fetch a height profile of the species at location. The climatology instance must support the requested species and it will extract the value from the cached data (see UpdateCache):

ok,profile = climate.GetParameter (species, location, altitudes)

Parameters: species (string) – The identification code of the required species. The climatology must support this species. location (GEODETIC_INSTANT) – The location in space and time for which the value is required. See UpdateCache for a description of GEODETIC_INSTANT. Note that the value will be extracted by appropriate interpolation of the existing cache but does not update the current cache. altitudes (1d-array) – An array of altitudes expressed in meters. The code will resturn the value of the species on the given altitude grid. See :UpdateCache() for a description of GEODETIC_INSTANT. Note that the value will be extracted by appropriate interpolation of the existing cache but does not update the current cache. A two element list [ok, value] ok True if successful value The height profile of the requested species on the given altitudes. This is returned either as a numpy array if altitudes was an array or as a scalar float if altitudes was a scalar float

Create_New_ClimatologyName(speciesname) → ok

Allows a user to define a new species name that can be used in subsequent calls to SetPropertyUserDefined. This allows users to make user-defined climatologies of species which are not already defined inside the SasktranIF libraries.:

ok = climate.Create_New_ClimatologyName( speciesname)
Parameters: speciesname (string) – The name of the new species to be added to the internal library of supported species. Note this name is added to a global library inside SasktranIF and is avaialble to all SasktranIF objects. Note that new entries are only made if the species name does not currently exist in the internal library. The species name is case insensitive returns true if successful

SetPropertyUserDefined(species, location) → value

A special property reserved for user-defined climatoglies that allows users to specify their own height profiles for a given species. This functionality is required for retrieval algorithms. You typically have to call SetProperty(‘Heights’,h), see USERDEFINED_PROFILE, before calling this function to set the required height grid.:

ok = climate.SetPropertyUserDefined( speciesname, profile)

Parameters: speciesname (string) – The name of the custom profile to be modified. Note that the names must exist in the internal global table (to avoid typing errors). New names can be added to the global table with method :meth Create_New_ClimatologyName, profile (array) – The array of values for the climatology of locations previously defined by appropriate calls to :meth SetProperty( ‘Heights’ ) ok (boolean) – returns true if successful returns true if successful

An example:

climate = skif.ISKClimatology(‘USERDEFINED_PROFILE’)
h = (0:100)*1000.0;
v = h.*h + 1.0;