1. Introduction

1.1. What is RH 1.5D

RH 1.5D is a modified version of the RH radiative transfer code that runs through a 3D/2D/1D atmosphere column-by-column, in the same fashion of rhf1d. It was developed as a way to efficiently run RH column-by-column (1.5D) over large atmospheres, simplifying the output and being able to run in supercomputers. It is MPI-parallel and scales well to at least 4096 processes.

While initially developed as another geometry on the RH tree, the requirements of the parallel version required changes to the RH core tree. Thus, it is more than a wrapper over RH and is distributed with a complete modified version of RH (see below for differences from RH distributed by Han Uitenbroek).

1.2. What this manual covers

Because there is much in common with RH, this manual should be seen as an incremental documentation of the 1.5D parallel side. This manual focuses on what is different from RH. Users should refer to the RH documentation by Han Uitenbroek for more detailed information on RH.

1.3. Comparison with RH

RH 1.5D inherits most of the code base from RH, but some features are new. The code is organised in the same was as the RH source tree, with the routines specific to the 1.5D version residing on a subdirectory rh15d of the rh source tree. In this way, it works similarly to the subdirectories in rh for different geometries. The compilation and linking proceeds as for the other geometries: first the general librh.a library should be compiled, and then the code in rh15d will be compiled and linked to it. The run directory is very similar to that of a given geometry in RH: most of the *.input files are used in the same way.

The lists below show a comparison between RH 1.5D and RH for a 1D plane-parallel geometry:

1.3.1. Commonalities between RH 1.5D and RH

  • Core RH library
  • Structure and location of *.input files (some new options available)
  • Wavetable, Atom, Molecule, line list, and any other input files except the atmospheres
  • Directory-level compilation and general structure of run directory (new subdirectories needed)

1.3.2. What is new in RH 1.5D

  • MPI-parallelism with dynamic load balancing and efficient I/O
  • Different format of atmosphere files
  • Different formats of output files
  • Select which quantities should be in output
  • New options for keyword.input and atoms.input
  • Hybrid angle-dependent PRD mode
  • PRD-switching
  • Option for using escape probability approximation as initial solution
  • Exclude from the calculations the higher parts of the atmosphere, above a user-defined temperature threshold
  • Depth scale optimisation
  • Option for cubic Hermite interpolation of source function in formal solver
  • Option for Bézier interpolation of source function in formal solvers, both for polarised and unpolarised light
  • Support for more types of collisional excitations
  • Easy re-run of non-converged columns
  • Option for keeping background opacities in memory and not in disk

1.3.3. What is not supported in RH 1.5D

  • Currently only a fraction of the RH output is written to disk (to save space), but more output can be added
  • The old IDL analysis suite does not currently support the new output format
  • solveray is no longer used
  • backgrcontr no longer works with the new output
  • Any other geometry aside from 1.5D
  • Continuing old run by reading populations and output files
  • Full Stokes NLTE iterations and background polarisation (might work with little effort, but has not been tested)
  • Thread parallelisation