Improvements to air mass calculations for ground-based infrared measurements

High-resolution ground-based infrared solar spectra are routinely recorded at the Network for the Detection of Stratospheric Change (NDSC) stations. These data sets play a key role in providing a long-term record of atmospheric composition and their links to climate change. The analysis of observed infrared spectra involves comparison to a computer-modeled atmosphere where knowledge of the air mass distribution is an essential component. This note summarises improvements made to an existing and widely used computer code (FSCATM) to perform refractive ray-tracing and calculation of the air mass distribution. Changes were made towards higher vertical resolution in the troposphere and increased numerical precision. The revised FSCATM improves the analysis of infrared spectra mostly through the more accurate representation of the temperature profile. Air mass differences with respect to earlier versions are documented and are typically <0.7%, exceptions being extreme cases of inversion layers. The current version provides ray tracing and air mass calculations for any terrestrial observation site. The output files are reported in a format compatible with the SFIT and SFIT2 retrieval algorithms, which are widely used for NDSC infrared atmospheric studies. The improved computer code, documentation, reference profiles, and test cases are available electronically.