Bruce R. Barkstrom

Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) - An Earth Observing System experiment

Abstract Clouds and the Earths Radiant Energy System (CERES) is an investigation to examine the role of cloud/radiation feedback in the Earths climate system. The CERES broadband scanning radiometers are an improved version of the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) radiometers. The CERES instruments will fly on several National Aeronautics and Space Administration Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites starting in 1998 and extending over at least 15 years. The CERES science investigations will provide data to extend the ERBE climate record of top-of-atmosphere shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) radiative fluxes. CERES will also combine simultaneous cloud property data derived using EOS narrowband imagers to provide a consistent set of cloud/radiation data, including SW and LW radiative fluxes at the surface and at several selected levels within the atmosphere. CERES data are expected to provide top-of-atmosphere radiative fluxes with a factor of 2 to 3 less error than the ERBE data. Estimates of ra...

Cloud-radiative forcing and climate : Results from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment

The study of climate and climate change is hindered by a lack of information on the effect of clouds on the radiation balance of the earth, referred to as the cloud-radiative forcing. Quantitative estimates of the global distributions of cloud-radiative forcing have been obtained from the spaceborne Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) launched in 1984. For the April 1985 period, the global shortwave cloud forcing [-44.5 watts per square meter (W/m2)] due to the enhancement of planetary albedo, exceeded in magnitude the longwave cloud forcing (31.3 W/m2) resulting from the greenhouse effect of clouds. Thus, clouds had a net cooling effect on the earth. This cooling effect is large over the mid-and high-latitude oceans, with values reaching -100 W/m2. The monthly averaged longwave cloud forcing reached maximum values of 50 to 100 W/m2 over the convectively disturbed regions of the tropics. However, this heating effect is nearly canceled by a correspondingly large negative shortwave cloud forcing, which indicates the delicately balanced state of the tropics. The size of the observed net cloud forcing is about four times as large as the expected value of radiative forcing from a doubling of CO2. The shortwave and longwave components of cloud forcing are about ten times as large as those for a CO2 doubling. Hence, small changes in the cloud-radiative forcing fields can play a significant role as a climate feedback mechanism. For example, during past glaciations a migration toward the equator of the field of strong, negative cloud-radiative forcing, in response to a similar migration of cooler waters, could have significantly amplified oceanic cooling and continental glaciation.

The Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE)

Abstract The Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) is the first multi-satellite system designed to measure the Earths radiation budget. It will fly on a low-inclination NASA satellite and two Sun-synchronous NOAA satellites during the mid-1980s. Each satellite will carry two instrument packages—a scanner and a nonscanner—each package containing a complete, traceable system for inflight calibration. The nonscanner package has four Earth-viewing channels, as well as a solar monitor similar to that flown on the Solar Max Mission. The nonscanner detectors are the first Earth-viewing active cavity radiometers. The scanner package contains three thermistor bolometers which scan the Earth perpendicular to the orbital track. The data from the satellite radiometers will be brought to the top of the atmosphere using a pixel-by-pixel process for the scanner data and a numerical filter for the nonscanner. The inversion will use angular directional models based on the Nimbus 7 ERB instruments, selecting the approp...

Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) Archival and April 1985 Results

This paper describes the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) data products being made available to the community. The Science Team used ten validation criteria to judge the acceptability of the data for archival. We list these criteria and present uncertainty estimates based on them for four typical data products. A brief description of the radiation budget for April 1985 from the combined data of ERBE and NOAA-9 concludes this paper.

Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES): algorithm overview

The Clouds and the Earths Radiant Energy System (CERES) is part of NASAs Earth Observing System (EOS), CERES objectives include the following. (1) For climate change analysis, provide a continuation of the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) record of radiative fluxes at the top-of-the-atmosphere (TOA), analyzed using the same techniques as the existing ERBE data. (2) Double the accuracy of estimates of radiative fluxes at TOA and the Earths surface. (3) Provide the first long-term global estimates of the radiative fluxes within the Earths atmosphere. (4) Provide cloud property estimates collocated in space and time that are consistent with the radiative fluxes from surface to TOA. In order to accomplish these goals, CERES uses data from a combination of spaceborne instruments: CERES scanners, which are an improved version of the ERBE broadband radiometers, and collocated cloud spectral imager data on the same spacecraft. The CERES cloud and radiative flux data products should prove extremely useful in advancing the understanding of cloud-radiation interactions, particularly cloud feedback effects on the Earths radiation balance. For this reason, the CERES data should be fundamental to the ability to understand, detect, and predict global climate change. CERES results should also be very useful for studying regional climate changes associated with deforestation, desertification, anthropogenic aerosols, and ENSO events. This overview summarizes the Release 3 version of the planned CERES data products and data analysis algorithms. These algorithms are a prototype for the system that will produce the scientific data required for studying the role of clouds and radiation in the Earths climate system.

Climate and the Earth's Radiation Budget

Among the first payloads aboard satellites in the early 1960s were instruments for measuring the Earths radiation budget. The radiation budget consists of the incident and reflected sunlight and the long‐wave (infrared and far infrared) radiation emitted to space. The source for the recent spurt in scientific and public interest in the greenhouse effect and global warming is the alteration of the radiation budget by the anthropogenic emission of trace gases into the atmosphere.

A finite difference method of solving anisotropic scattering problems

Abstract A new method of solving radiative transfer problems is described including a comparison of its speed with that of the doubling method, and a discussion of its accuracy and suitability for computations involving variable optical properties. The method uses a discretization in angle to produce a coupled set of first-order differential equations which are integrated between discrete depth points to produce a set of recursion relations for symmetric and anti-symmetric angular sums of the radiation field at alternate depth points. The formulation given here includes depth-dependent anisotropic scattering, absorption, and internal sources, and allows arbitrary combinations of specular and non-Lambertian diffuse reflection at either or both boundaries. The method is shown to be faster than the doubling method when the number of depth points and angular quadrature points is identical. Numerical tests of the method show that it can return accurate emergent intensities even for large optical depths. The method is also shown to conserve flux to machine accuracy in conservative atmospheres. Finally, several checks are made that demonstrate that the new method can compute accurate radiation fields in atmospheres with variable optical properties.

Characteristics of the earth radiation budget experiment solar monitors

The earth radiation budget experiment solar monitors, active cavity pyrheliometers, have been developed to measure every two weeks the total optical solar irradiance from the earth radiation budget satellite (ERBS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA-9 spacecraft platforms. In the unfiltered 0.2-50-microm wavelength broadband region, the monitors were used to obtain 1365 W/m(2) as the mean value for the solar irradiance with measurement precisions and accuracies approaching 0.1 and 0.2%, respectively. The design and characteristics of the solar monitors are presented along with the data reduction model. For the Oct. 1984 through July 1985 period, the resulting ERBS and NOAA-9 solar irradiance values are intercompared.

The Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Sensors and Preflight Calibration Plans

Abstract The Clouds and the Earths Radiant Energy System (CERES) spacecraft sensors are designed to measure broadband earth-reflected solar shortwave (0.3–5 µm) and earth-emitted longwave (5– > 100 µm) radiances at the top of the atmosphere as part of the Mission to Planet Earth program. The scanning thermistor bolometer sensors respond to radiances in the broadband shortwave (0.3–5 µm) and total-wave (0.3– > 100 µm) spectral regions, as well as to radiances in the narrowband water vapor window (8–12 µm) region. The sensors are designed to operate for a minimum of 5 years aboard the NASA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and Earth Observing System AM-I spacecraft platforms that are scheduled for launches in 1997 and 1998, respectively. The flight sensors and the in-flight calibration systems will he calibrated in a vacuum ground facility using reference radiance sources, tied to the international temperature scale of 1990. The calibrations will be used to derive sensor gains, offsets, spectral response...

Postlaunch radiometric validation of the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Proto-Flight Model on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Spacecraft through 1999

Abstract Each Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument contains three scanning thermistor bolometer radiometric channels. These channels measure broadband radiances in the shortwave (0.3–5.0 μm), total (0.3–>100 μm), and water vapor window regions (8–12 μm). Ground-based radiometric calibrations of the CERES flight models were conducted by TRW Inc.’s Space and Electronics Group of Redondo Beach, California. On-orbit calibration and vicarious validation studies have demonstrated radiometric stability, defined as long-term repeatability when measuring a constant source, at better than 0.2% for the first 18 months of science data collection. This level exceeds by 2.5 to 5 times the prelaunch radiometric performance goals that were set at the 0.5% level for terrestrial energy flows and 1.0% for solar energy flows by the CERES Science Team. The current effort describes the radiometric performance of the CERES Proto-Flight Model on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission spacecraft over t...