HITRAN and HAPI

HITRAN/HAPI support is an optional extra for pip users and is included in desktop installers. It serves a different role than NIST. NIST supports reference and quantitative infrared workflows around public compiled data. HITRAN/HAPI supports line-by-line gas-phase spectral synthesis when the clients, API key, and network access are configured.

0.6.0 release lifecycle. Install 0.6.0 from PyPI only after the public index reports that exact version. Before the public tag exists, use only the exact monorepo commit named by the qualification record. After the tag exists but before PyPI reports 0.6.0, use the exact spectra-sherpa-v0.6.0 source tag. Source version text alone is not publication evidence.

pip install "spectra-sherpa[hitran]==0.6.0"

Desktop users do not need this pip command: the installer includes both clients, their licenses and matching source archives. See desktop packaging.

HITRAN live synthesis requires a HITRAN API key and network egress permission.

SpectraSherpa also ships two synthetic FTIR benchmark files, Synthetic_atmospheric-6.npz and Library_atmospheric-9.npz, whose spectral signatures are derived from HITRAN data. Treat these as HITRAN-derived scientific artifacts: cite HITRAN/HAPI and follow HITRAN terms when using them in reports, validation records, publications, or customer-facing work.

Supported Versions

The current SpectraSherpa package supports hitran-api >=1.3.0.0,<2 and hitran-api2 >=0.2.2,<1. The current lockfile pins hitran-api 1.3.0.0 and hitran-api2 0.2.2. See the official HITRAN HAPI page and HAPI manual for upstream API details.

Citation

Cite HITRAN and HAPI when HITRAN-generated spectra are used in scientific or customer-facing work. Use the current citation guidance from HITRAN for the database release used by the analysis. HITRAN publishes citation guidance at hitran.org/citepolicy.

Practical Note

Start with narrow spectral ranges when testing HITRAN setup. Wide high-resolution line-by-line synthesis can be slow.