Airglow simulation based on the Atmospheric Ultraviolet Radiance Integrated Code of 2012

The Atmospheric Ultraviolet Radiance Integrated Code (AURIC) is a software package developed by Computational Physics, Inc. (CPI) under the sponsorship of the Air Force Phillips Laboratory/Geophysics Directorate (PL/GP) (currently the Air Force Research Laboratory) for middle and upper atmospheric radiance modeling from the far ultraviolet to the near infrared. The AURIC has been considered as a general model for the radiative transfer simulation of airglow. Based on the theory of MODerate resolution atmospheric TRANsmission (MODTRAN), the AURIC extends calculation to altitudes above 100 km and the wavelength down to 80 nm. A package of AURIC v1.2 was released in 2002, which can be used for single-point simulation from 1947 to 1999. It means that the model is not suitable for atmospheric simulation of large datasets or for atmospheric parameters retrieval from amount of satellite measurements. In this paper, AURIC v1.2 is upgraded to AURIC-2012 based on MATLAB with improvements for modules of the Geomagnetic Parameter (GEOPARM), Atmosphere neutral composition (ATOMS), and Ionospheric electron density (IONOS). The improved AURIC can be used for global automatic airglow simulation and also for automatic retrieval of atmospheric compositions from satellite global observations, such as O/N-2 and electron density etc. Besides, the model supplies possibilities for further improvement of airglow radiative mechanism and for substitution of other modules. Based on the AURIC-2012, Limb Column Emission Intensity (L-CEI) and Volume Emission Rate (VER) are calculated. For validation, the results were compared with measurements of the Global Ultraviolet Imager (GUVI) and TIMED Doppler Interferometer (TIDI), respectively. The averaged relative errors of L-CEI and VER at peak altitude are both within 20%. Finally, L-CEI varying with latitude, altitude, solar activity, and geomagnetic activity is simulated, and the distribution characteristics of the simulation and their influencing factors are analyzed subsequently.