Radiometers
ERBE
The Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE), flown on the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) and the NOAA Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites (NOAA-9, NOAA-10), was designed to measure the energy exchange between the earth-atmosphere system and space. The measurements of global, zonal, and regional radiation budgets on monthly time scales helped in climate prediction and in the development of statistical relationships between regional weather and radiation budget anomalies. The ERBE consisted of two seperate instrument packages: the nonscanner (ERBE-NS) instrument and the scanner (ERBS-S) instrument. The ERBE-NS instrument had five sensors, each using cavity radiometer detectors. Four of them were primarily earth-viewing. Two wide-field-of-view (WFOV) sensors viewed the entire disk of the earth from limb to limb, approximately 135 deg. Two medium FOV (MFOV) sensors viewed a 10-deg region. The fifth sensor was a solar monitor that measured the total radiation from the sun. Of the four earth-viewing sensors, one WFOV and one MFOV sensor made total radiation measurements; the other two measured reflected solar radiation in the shortwave spectral band between 0.2 and 5 micrometers by using Suprasil-W filters. The earth-emitted longwave radiation component was determined by subtracting the shortwave measurement from the total measurement. The ERBE-S instrument was a scanning radiometer that contained three narrow FOV channels. One channel measured reflected solar radiation in the shortwave spectral interval between 0.2 and 5 micrometers. Another channel measured earth-emitted radiation in the longwave spectral region from 5 to 50 micrometers. The third channel measured total radiation with a wavelength between 0.2 and 50 micrometers. All three channels were located within a continuously rotating scan drum, which scanned the FOV across track sequentially from horizon to horizon. Each channel made 74 radiometric measurements during each scan, and the FOV of each channel was 3 by 4.5 deg, which covered about 40 km at the earth's surface. The ERBE-S also viewed the sun for calibration. Additional information can be obtained from the "Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE): An Overview," J. Energy, vol 6, pp. 141-146 (1982), by B.R. Barkstrom and J.B. Hall, Jr. More information can also be found at: "http://asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/erbe/ASDerbe.html" Data availability contact: Langley Distributed Active Archive Center Mail Stop 157B NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, Virginia 23681-0001 (804)864-8656 FAX (804)864-8807 userserv@eosdis.larc.nasa.gov IDN_Node: USA/NASA