Betaspec 2.0

A Program to generate atmospheric backscatter and attenuation coefficients using BACKSCAT 4.0 / LOWTRAN 7 aerosol models.

Betaspec Version 2.0 Developed by the University of South Florida, exclusive distribution by Ontar Corporation(Released September 10, 2009)Betaspec is included with the HITRAN-PC version 4.0 package and also sold separately.

The Betaspec program has been created in order to provide a user friendly interface for generating atmospheric attenuation (α, km-1) and backscatter (β, sr-1 ∙ m-1) coefficients due to the presence of aerosols and molecular Rayleigh scatter by means of running the AFGL / Sparta BACKSCAT 4.0 program over a range of wavelengths in the 0.2 – 40 micron spectral range.

Betaspec 2.0 is a user friendly version of the US Air Force BACKSCAT (Version 4.0) program which is a Microsoft Windows based computer program that users the LOWTRAN 7/FASCODE aerosol models). The BACKSCAT program is a Lidar simulation program that determines the lidar S/N ratio for a wide range of targets and systems. As part of this simulation, the BACKSCAT program calculates the appropriate aerosol and Rayleigh attenuation and backscatter coefficients for a wide range of atmospheric conditions including a US Standard Atmosphere, clouds, haze, fog, rain, etc.

The Betaspec 2.0 program uses the main aerosol attenuation/backscatter kernel of the BACKSCAT program, but adds a user friendly interface to allow the user to easily change the weather conditions and wavelength range of the calculations. The output from the BETASPEC program is a data array of the backscatter coefficients and aerosol attenuation coefficients as a function of wavelength and of altitude. The output file (*.BASC or *.ASC file extensions), contains the attenuation and backscatter coefficients due to aerosols (clouds, dust, etc.) in the