A Numerical Testbed (UNL-VRTM) for Remote Sensing of Aerosols: New Capabilities for Non-Spherical Particles & Illumination at Night

The Unified Linearized Vector Radiative Transfer Model (UNL-VRTM) was specifically designed as a testbed for remote sensing of Earth atmosphere and surface, especially for aerosols. Since its debut in 2014, UNL-VRTM has been applied to various studies in remote sensing of aerosols, clouds, trace gas, and ground surface. The model itself has been requested by over 40 groups and 100 users (http://unl-vrtm.org) for their use in research and contributed to over 100 peer-reviewed publications. In this presentation, we will present the most recent updates for UNL-VRTM, including the advancement to treat the scattering properties of nonspehrical dust particles with machine learning as well as the radiative transfer of light from fires and moonlight at nighttime. Examples of these advancement for various applications including nighttime retrieval of aerosols by using backscattered moonlight will shown.