Earth radiation budget research at Langley Research Center

In November 1984 Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) instruments began measuring the radiation budget of the Earth. Since then there has been a continuing program of Earth Radiation budget measurements using ERBE instruments aboard the dedicated Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) and the NOAA-9 and -10 spacecraft, followed by the CERES (Clouds and the Earth Radiant Energy System) instruments aboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission spacecraft and the Terra and Aqua spacecraft. Plans are to launch a CERES instrument by the NPOESS Preparatory Project as successor to the aging instruments aboard the Terra and Aqua. Beyond that, new CERES-type instruments will be built for use on the NPOESS C1 and C3 platforms, thus insuring that the flow of high quality Earth radiation budget data will continue. This paper begins with the initiation of the ERBE project a decade before the flight of ERBS, and tells of the development of the team from the concept of ERBE through the CERES project to the present, with a summary of the major accomplishments. From the beginning to now, this work spans a third of a century.

Scientists used ERBE data to define the diurnal and annual cycles of Earth radiation budget and to demonstrate the importance of clouds in this balance. They are now using CERES data to unravel the interaction of clouds with radiation so as to understand better our climate and how it is affected by natural variability and human activities.