scholarly journals Computation of Radiation Budget on an Oblate Earth

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (19) ◽  
pp. 7203-7206
Author(s):  
G. Louis Smith ◽  
David R. Doelling

Abstract The effects of the earth’s oblateness on computation of its radiation budget from satellite measurements are evaluated. For the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) data processing, geolocations of the measurements are computed in terms of the geodetic coordinate system. Using this system accounts for oblateness in the computed solar zenith angle and length of day. The geodetic and geocentric latitudes are equal at the equator and poles but differ by a maximum of 0.2° at 45° latitude. The area of each region and zone is affected by oblateness as compared to geocentric coordinates, decreasing from zero at the equator to 1.5% at the poles. The global area receiving solar radiation is calculated using the equatorial and polar axes. This area varies with solar declination by 0.0005. For radiation budget computations, the earth oblateness effects are shown to be small compared to error sources of measuring or modeling.

2020 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-163
Author(s):  
X Liu ◽  
Y Kang ◽  
Q Liu ◽  
Z Guo ◽  
Y Chen ◽  
...  

The regional climate model RegCM version 4.6, developed by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis, was used to simulate the radiation budget over China. Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) satellite data were utilized to evaluate the simulation results based on 4 radiative components: net shortwave (NSW) radiation at the surface of the earth and top of the atmosphere (TOA) under all-sky and clear-sky conditions. The performance of the model for low-value areas of NSW was superior to that for high-value areas. NSW at the surface and TOA under all-sky conditions was significantly underestimated; the spatial distribution of the bias was negative in the north and positive in the south, bounded by 25°N for the annual and seasonal averaged difference maps. Compared with the all-sky condition, the simulation effect under clear-sky conditions was significantly better, which indicates that the cloud fraction is the key factor affecting the accuracy of the simulation. In particular, the bias of the TOA NSW under the clear-sky condition was <±10 W m-2 in the eastern areas. The performance of the model was better over the eastern monsoon region in winter and autumn for surface NSW under clear-sky conditions, which may be related to different levels of air pollution during each season. Among the 3 areas, the regional average biases overall were largest (negative) over the Qinghai-Tibet alpine region and smallest over the eastern monsoon region.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 929 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Clerbaux ◽  
Tom Akkermans ◽  
Edward Baudrez ◽  
Almudena Velazquez Blazquez ◽  
William Moutier ◽  
...  

Data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) have been used to create several long-duration data records of geophysical variables describing the atmosphere and land and water surfaces. In the Climate Monitoring Satellite Application Facility (CM SAF) project, AVHRR data are used to derive the Cloud, Albedo, and Radiation (CLARA) climate data records of radiation components (i.a., surface albedo) and cloud properties (i.a., cloud cover). This work describes the methodology implemented for the additional estimation of the Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR), an important Earth radiation budget component, that is consistent with the other CLARA variables. A first step is the estimation of the instantaneous OLR from the AVHRR observations. This is done by regressions on a large database of collocated observations between AVHRR Channel 4 (10.8 µm) and 5 (12 µm) and the OLR from the Clouds and Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) instruments. We investigate the applicability of this method to the first generation of AVHRR instrument (AVHRR/1) for which no Channel 5 observation is available. A second step concerns the estimation of daily and monthly OLR from the instantaneous AVHRR overpasses. This step is especially important given the changes in the local time of the observations due to the orbital drift of the NOAA satellites. We investigate the use of OLR in the ERA5 reanalysis to estimate the diurnal variation. The developed approach proves to be valuable to model the diurnal change in OLR due to day/night time warming/cooling over clear land. Finally, the resulting monthly mean AVHRR OLR product is intercompared with the CERES monthly mean product. For a typical configuration with one morning and one afternoon AVHRR observation, the Root Mean Square (RMS) difference with CERES monthly mean OLR is about 2 Wm−2 at 1° × 1° resolution. We quantify the degradation of the OLR product when only one AVHRR instrument is available (as is the case for some periods in the 1980s) and also the improvement when more instruments are available (e.g., using METOP-A, NOAA-15, NOAA-18, and NOAA-19 in 2012). The degradation of the OLR product from AVHRR/1 instruments is also quantified, which is done by “masking” the Channel 5 observations.


2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 468-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aiko Voigt ◽  
Bjorn Stevens ◽  
Jürgen Bader ◽  
Thorsten Mauritsen

Abstract While the concentration of landmasses and atmospheric aerosols on the Northern Hemisphere suggests that the Northern Hemisphere is brighter than the Southern Hemisphere, satellite measurements of top-of-atmosphere irradiances found that both hemispheres reflect nearly the same amount of shortwave irradiance. Here, the authors document that the most precise and accurate observation, the energy balanced and filled dataset of the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System covering the period 2000–10, measures an absolute hemispheric difference in reflected shortwave irradiance of 0.1 W m−2. In contrast, the longwave irradiance of the two hemispheres differs by more than 1 W m−2, indicating that the observed climate system exhibits hemispheric symmetry in reflected shortwave irradiance but not in longwave irradiance. The authors devise a variety of methods to estimate the spatial degrees of freedom of the time-mean reflected shortwave irradiance. These are used to show that the hemispheric symmetry in reflected shortwave irradiance is a nontrivial property of the Earth system in the sense that most partitionings of Earth into two random halves do not exhibit hemispheric symmetry in reflected shortwave irradiance. Climate models generally do not reproduce the observed hemispheric symmetry, which the authors interpret as further evidence that the symmetry is nontrivial. While the authors cannot rule out that the observed hemispheric symmetry in reflected shortwave irradiance is accidental, their results motivate a search for mechanisms that minimize hemispheric differences in reflected shortwave irradiance and planetary albedo.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1950
Author(s):  
Seiji Kato ◽  
David A. Rutan ◽  
Fred G. Rose ◽  
Thomas E. Caldwell ◽  
Seung-Hee Ham ◽  
...  

The Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) Energy Balanced and Filled (EBAF) Edition 4.1 data product provides global surface irradiances. Uncertainties in the global and regional monthly and annual mean all-sky net shortwave, longwave, and shortwave plus longwave (total) irradiances are estimated using ground-based observations. Error covariance is derived from surface irradiance sensitivity to surface, atmospheric, cloud and aerosol property perturbations. Uncertainties in global annual mean net shortwave, longwave, and total irradiances at the surface are, respectively, 5.7 Wm−2, 6.7 Wm−2, and 9.7 Wm−2. In addition, the uncertainty in surface downward irradiance monthly anomalies and their trends are estimated based on the difference derived from EBAF surface irradiances and observations. The uncertainty in the decadal trend suggests that when differences of decadal global mean downward shortwave and longwave irradiances are, respectively, greater than 0.45 Wm−2 and 0.52 Wm−2, the difference is larger than 1σ uncertainties. However, surface irradiance observation sites are located predominately over tropical oceans and the northern hemisphere mid-latitude. As a consequence, the effect of a discontinuity introduced by using multiple geostationary satellites in deriving cloud properties is likely to be excluded from these trend and decadal change uncertainty estimates. Nevertheless, the monthly anomaly timeseries of radiative cooling in the atmosphere (multiplied by −1) agrees reasonably well with the anomaly time series of diabatic heating derived from global mean precipitation and sensible heat flux with a correlation coefficient of 0.46.


2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 557-568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Radkevich ◽  
Konstantin Khlopenkov ◽  
David Rutan ◽  
Seiji Kato

Abstract Identification of clear-sky snow and ice is an important step in the production of cryosphere radiation budget products, which are used in the derivation of long-term data series for climate research. In this paper, a new method of clear-sky snow/ice identification for Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is presented. The algorithm’s goal is to enhance the identification of snow and ice within the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) data after application of the standard CERES scene identification scheme. The input of the algorithm uses spectral radiances from five MODIS bands and surface skin temperature available in the CERES Single Scanner Footprint (SSF) product. The algorithm produces a cryosphere rating from an aggregated test: a higher rating corresponds to a more certain identification of the clear-sky snow/ice-covered scene. Empirical analysis of regions of interest representing distinctive targets such as snow, ice, ice and water clouds, open waters, and snow-free land selected from a number of MODIS images shows that the cryosphere rating of snow/ice targets falls into 95% confidence intervals lying above the same confidence intervals of all other targets. This enables recognition of clear-sky cryosphere by using a single threshold applied to the rating, which makes this technique different from traditional branching techniques based on multiple thresholds. Limited tests show that the established threshold clearly separates the cryosphere rating values computed for the cryosphere from those computed for noncryosphere scenes, whereas individual tests applied consequently cannot reliably identify the cryosphere for complex scenes.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qi Zeng ◽  
Jie Cheng ◽  
Feng Yang

&lt;p&gt;Surface longwave (LW) radiation plays an important rolein global climatic change, which is consist of surface longwave upward radiation (LWUP), surface longwave downward radiation (LWDN) and surface longwave net radiation (LWNR). Numerous studies have been carried out to estimate LWUP or LWDN from remote sensing data, and several satellite LW radiation products have been released, such as the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project&amp;#8208;Flux Data (ISCCP&amp;#8208;FD), the Global Energy and Water cycle Experiment&amp;#8208;Surface Radiation Budget (GEWEX&amp;#8208;SRB) and the Clouds and the Earth&amp;#8217;s Radiant Energy System&amp;#8208;Gridded Radiative Fluxes and Clouds (CERES&amp;#8208;FSW). But these products share the common features of coarse spatial resolutions (100-280 km) and lower validation accuracy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Under such circumstance, we developed the methods of estimating long-term high spatial resolution all sky&amp;#160; instantaneous LW radiation, and produced the corresponding products from MODIS data from 2000 through 2018 (Terra and Aqua), named as Global LAnd Surface Satellite (GLASS) Longwave Radiation product, which can be free freely downloaded from the website (http://glass.umd.edu/Download.html).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In this article, ground measurements collected from 141 sites in six independent networks (AmerciFlux, AsiaFlux, BSRN, CEOP, HiWATER-MUSOEXE and TIPEX-III) are used to evaluate the clear-sky GLASS LW radiation products at global scale. The bias and RMSE is -4.33 W/m&lt;sup&gt;2 &lt;/sup&gt;and 18.15 W/m&lt;sup&gt;2 &lt;/sup&gt;for LWUP, -3.77 W/m&lt;sup&gt;2 &lt;/sup&gt;and 26.94 W/m&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; for LWDN, and 0.70 W/m&lt;sup&gt;2 &lt;/sup&gt;and 26.70 W/m&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; for LWNR, respectively. Compared with validation results of the above mentioned three LW radiation products, the overall accuracy of GLASS LW radiation product is much better. We will continue to improve the retrieval algorithms and update the products accordingly.&lt;/p&gt;


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (24) ◽  
pp. 10039-10058 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyler J. Thorsen ◽  
Seiji Kato ◽  
Norman G. Loeb ◽  
Fred G. Rose

The Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES)–partial radiative perturbation [PRP (CERES-PRP)] methodology applies partial-radiative-perturbation-like calculations to observational datasets to directly isolate the individual cloud, atmospheric, and surface property contributions to the variability of the radiation budget. The results of these calculations can further be used to construct radiative kernels. A suite of monthly mean observation-based inputs are used for the radiative transfer, including cloud properties from either the diurnally resolved passive-sensor-based CERES synoptic (SYN) data or the combination of the CloudSat cloud radar and Cloud–Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations ( CALIPSO) lidar. The CloudSat/ CALIPSO cloud profiles are incorporated via a clustering method that obtains monthly mean cloud properties suitable for accurate radiative transfer calculations. The computed fluxes are validated using the TOA fluxes observed by CERES. Applications of the CERES-PRP methodology are demonstrated by computing the individual contributions to the variability of the radiation budget over multiple years and by deriving water vapor radiative kernels. The calculations for the former are used to show that an approximately linear decomposition of the total flux anomalies is achieved. The observation-based water vapor kernels were used to investigate the accuracy of the GCM-based NCAR CAM3.0 water vapor kernel. Differences between our observation-based kernel and the NCAR one are marginally larger than those inferred by previous comparisons among different GCM kernels.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 2813-2826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pawan Gupta ◽  
Joanna Joiner ◽  
Alexander Vasilkov ◽  
Pawan K. Bhartia

Abstract. Estimates of top-of-the-atmosphere (TOA) radiative flux are essential for the understanding of Earth's energy budget and climate system. Clouds, aerosols, water vapor, and ozone (O3) are among the most important atmospheric agents impacting the Earth's shortwave (SW) radiation budget. There are several sensors in orbit that provide independent information related to these parameters. Having coincident information from these sensors is important for understanding their potential contributions. The A-train constellation of satellites provides a unique opportunity to analyze data from several of these sensors. In this paper, retrievals of cloud/aerosol parameters and total column ozone (TCO) from the Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) have been collocated with the Aqua Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) estimates of total reflected TOA outgoing SW flux (SWF). We use these data to develop a variety of neural networks that estimate TOA SWF globally over ocean and land using only OMI data and other ancillary information as inputs and CERES TOA SWF as the output for training purposes. OMI-estimated TOA SWF from the trained neural networks reproduces independent CERES data with high fidelity. The global mean daily TOA SWF calculated from OMI is consistently within ±1 % of CERES throughout the year 2007. Application of our neural network method to other sensors that provide similar retrieved parameters, both past and future, can produce similar estimates TOA SWF. For example, the well-calibrated Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) series could provide estimates of TOA SWF dating back to late 1978.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Dewitte ◽  
Nicolas Clerbaux

The Earth Radiation Budget (ERB) at the top of the atmosphere quantifies how the earth gains energy from the sun and loses energy to space. Its monitoring is of fundamental importance for understanding ongoing climate change. In this paper, decadal changes of the Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) as measured by the Clouds and Earth’s Radiant Energy System from 2000 to 2018, the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment from 1985 to 1998, and the High-resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder from 1985 to 2018 are analysed. The OLR has been rising since 1985, and correlates well with the rising global temperature. An observational estimate of the derivative of the OLR with respect to temperature of 2.93 +/− 0.3 W/m 2 K is obtained. The regional patterns of the observed OLR change from 1985–2000 to 2001–2017 show a warming pattern in the Northern Hemisphere in particular in the Arctic, as well as tropical cloudiness changes related to a strengthening of La Niña.


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