Eradiate is a modern radiative transfer simulation software package for Earth observation applications. Its main focus is accuracy, and for that purpose, it uses the Monte Carlo ray tracing method to solve the radiative transfer equation.
- Spectral computation
Solar reflective spectral region
Eradiate ships spectral data within from 280 nm to 2400 nm. This range can be extended with additional data (just ask for it!).Line-by-line simulation
These are true monochromatic simulations (as opposed to narrow band simulations).Correlated k-distribution band model (1 nm and 10 nm resolution)
This method achieves compromise between performance and accuracy for the simulation of absorption by gases. - Atmosphere
One-dimensional atmospheric profiles (AFGL atmospheric constituent profiles)
These profiles are available in CKD mode only (the monochromatic mode uses the simpler U.S. Standard Atmosphere (1976) model).Plane-parallel and spherical-shell geometries
This allows for more accurate results at high illumination and viewing angles. - Surface
Lambertian and RPV reflection models
Model parameters can be varied against the spectral dimensions.Detailed surface geometry
Add a discrete canopy model (either disk-based abstract models, or more realistic mesh-based models).Combine with atmospheric profiles
Your discrete canopy can be integrated within a scene featuring a 1D atmosphere model in a fully coupled simulation. - Illumination
Directional illumination model
An ideal illumination model with a Delta angular distribution.Many irradiance datasets
Pick your favourite—or bring your own. - Measure
Top-of-atmosphere radiance and BRF computation
An ideal model suitable for satellite data simulation.Perspective camera sensor
Greatly facilitates scene setup: inspecting the scene is very easy.Many instrument spectral response functions
Our SRF data is very close to the original data, and we provide advice to further clean up the data, trading off accuracy for performance. - Monte Carlo ray tracing
Mitsuba renderer as radiometric kernel
We leverage the advanced Python API of this cutting-edge C++ rendering library.State-of-the-art volumetric path tracing algorithm
Mitsuba ships a null-collision-based volumetric path tracer which performs well in the cases Eradiate is used for. - Traceability
Documented data and formats
We explain where our data comes from and how users can build their own data in a format compatible with Eradiate's input.Transparent algorithms
Our algorithms are researched and documented, and their implementation is open-source.Thorough testing
Eradiate is shipped with a large unit testing suite and benchmarked periodically against community-established reference simulation software. - Interface
Comprehensive Python interface
Abstractions are derived from computer graphics and Earth observation and are designed to feel natural to EO scientists.Designed for interactive usage
Jupyter notebooks are now an essential tool in the digital scientific workflow.Integration with Python scientific ecosystem
The implementation is done using the Scientific Python stack.Standard data formats (mostly NetCDF)
Eradiate uses predominantly xarray data structures for I/O.
For build and usage instructions, please refer to the documentation.
Got a question? Please visit our discussion forum.
Eradiate is developed by a core team consisting of Vincent Leroy, Yvan Nollet, Sebastian Schunke, Nicolas Misk and Yves Govaerts.
Eradiate uses the Mitsuba 3 renderer, developed by the Realistic Graphics Lab, taking advantage of its Python interface and proven architecture, and extends it with components implementing numerical methods and models used in radiative transfer for Earth observation. The Eradiate team acknowledges Mitsuba creators and contributors for their work.
The development of Eradiate is funded by the Copernicus programme through a project managed by the European Space Agency (contract no 40000127201/19/I‑BG). The design phase was funded by the MetEOC-3 project (EMPIR grant 16ENV03).
Eradiate is free software licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (v3).
Eradiate is actively developed. It is beta software.