Aerosol3D 0.4.0

3D aerosol particle modeling and optical property computation

Aerosol3D

Aerosol3D is a Python toolkit for modeling the 3D geometry and optical properties of atmospheric aerosol particles. It provides a unified pipeline from geometric construction to Discrete Dipole Approximation (DDA) optical computation.

Features

• 3D Geometry Modeling — Build spheres, ellipsoids, cubes, and import fractal aggregates
• Coating Algorithms — Apply distance-based, potential-based, CCM (Closed-Cell Model), and CAM (Coated-Aggregate Model) coatings
• Optical Computation — Solve optical properties via DDA (Julia backend, optional GPU) or Mie theory (PyMieScatt, near-instant for spheres)
• Optical Property Export — Multi-wavelength AerosolOpticsData container with auto-computed Legendre moments and NetCDF I/O
• Optical Visualization — Spectral properties, phase function comparison, Legendre convergence diagnostics, and comparison summary plots
• 3D Visualization — Generate screenshots and rotation videos using PyVista
• Material Database — Built-in refractive index data for common aerosol materials
• Flexible I/O — Export to VTP and voxel formats

Installation

Requires Python >= 3.10.

pip install Aerosol3D

For development:

git clone https://github.com/openEarthModelling/Aerosol3D.git
cd Aerosol3D
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Optional Dependencies

• Julia backend (required for DDA optical computation): Install Julia and run pip install pyjulia
• GPU acceleration: Requires CUDA-capable GPU and Julia CUDA packages

Quick Start

from Aerosol3D import (
    AerosolParticle, create_sphere, MixingState,
    preset_material, save_screenshot, solve_optics, SimulationConfig
)

# Create a black carbon sphere
soot = preset_material("black_carbon")
particle = AerosolParticle(
    name="bc_sphere",
    mixing_state=MixingState.INTERNAL,
    unit="nm",
)
particle.add_mesh("core", create_sphere((0, 0, 0), 50.0), soot)

# 3D visualization
save_screenshot(particle, "sphere.png", colors={"core": "black"})

# Optical computation (Mie or DDA)
config = SimulationConfig(wavelength=550.0, source="solar")
result = solve_optics(particle, config, solver="MIE")
print(f"Extinction efficiency: {result.qext}")

Export multi-wavelength results and visualize:

from Aerosol3D.optics import from_optical_results

results = [solve_optics(particle, SimulationConfig(wavelength=w), solver="MIE")
           for w in [450, 550, 650]]
data = from_optical_results(results, n_legendre=32)
data.to_netcdf("optics.nc")

See the examples/ directory for complete workflows including fractal aggregates, coated particles, and DDA-Mie comparison pipelines.

Examples

Example	Description
black_carbon_sphere.py	Bare BC sphere with DDA optics
black_carbon_fractal.py	Fractal aggregate via pyFracAggregate with full pipeline
coated_fractal_aggregate.py	Coated fractal aggregate with coating models
validate_mie_vs_dda.py	Mie vs DDA validation comparison
dda_mie_pyradtran_pipeline/	3-stage DDA/Mie optics + DISORT radiative transfer pipeline

API Overview

Core Classes

• AerosolParticle — Particle container with multiple meshes/materials
• MixingState — Internal / external mixing state
• Material — Refractive index and density
• FractalAggregate — Fractal aggregate geometry

Geometry

• create_sphere(center, radius)
• create_ellipsoid(center, radii)
• create_cube(center, size)

Coating

• apply_distance_coating(particle, thickness, material)
• apply_potential_coating(particle, thickness, material)
• apply_ccm_coating(particle, thickness, material)
• apply_cam_coating(particle, thickness, material)

Optics

• solve_optics(particle, config, solver="DDA"|"MIE") — Optical solver dispatch
• SimulationConfig(wavelength, source) — Simulation parameters
• AerosolOpticsData / from_optical_results(results, n_legendre) — Multi-wavelength optical property container
• compute_legendre_moments(phase_function, theta) — Legendre expansion of scattering phase function

Optical Visualization

• plot_spectral_properties(data) — Extinction/scattering/absorption spectra
• plot_phase_function(data) — Phase function P11 vs scattering angle
• plot_optical_comparison(data1, data2) — Side-by-side comparison of two datasets
• plot_phase_function_comparison(data1, data2) — Phase function comparison with relative difference
• plot_legendre_convergence(data) — Legendre moment convergence diagnostics

I/O & Visualization

• save_screenshot(particle, path)
• save_rotation_video(particle, path)
• save_vtp(particle, path) / save_voxel(particle, path)

Development

# Run tests
pytest

# Run tests with coverage
pytest --cov=Aerosol3D --cov-report=term-missing

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

Acknowledgments

DDA optical computation is powered by CEMD.jl via a Python-Julia bridge.