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Optimal interpretation of remote sensing imagery requires characterizing the atmospheric composition between a sensor and the area it is observing. Timely estimates of atmospheric temperature, water vapor, and other constituents from the ground to the edge of the space environment are not always readily available. In those cases, we must supplement our knowledge of the atmosphere’s composition to fill in any gaps in knowledge and empirical models of the atmosphere are useful tools for this purpose. The Standardized Atmosphere Generator (SAG) was constructed is one such empirical. It has been designed to allow all the major known, systematic variability in the atmosphere and may be used to generate atmospheric profile from the ground to 300 km consistent with user-specified temporal, geophysical, and geographical information Output provides reasonable estimates for temperature, pressure, and densities of atmospheric constituents and can be directly incorporated into radiative transfer forward models or retrieval algorithms. SAG draws upon a number of existing empirical atmospheric models and ensures consistency of output between them. It can be used either as a stand-alone interactive program or scripted for batch execution and assist in determining atmospheric attenuation, refraction, scattering, chemical kinetic temperature profiles, and a host of other naturally occurring processes. Here, we will discuss the capabilities and performance of the SAG model for a variety of applications including its interactive and batch processing use. We will also demonstrate the physical realism of SAG through a small number of relevant use cases.
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