The NASA/GEWEX Surface Radiation Budget Project
Abstract
The surface radiation budget (SRB), consisting of downward and upward components of shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) radiation is a major component of the energy exchanges between the atmosphere and land/ocean surfaces and thus affects surface temperature fields, fluxes of sensible and latent heat, and every aspect of energy and hydrological cycles. A global dataset of surface radiative fluxes on a 1° grid for the July 1983 to December 2004 period has been produced under the auspices of the above project at the NASA Langley Research Center. Both SW and LW fluxes were produced with a primary and a secondary set of algorithms. The primary algorithms use a more explicit treatment of surface and atmospheric processes while the secondary algorithms use more a parameterized approach. Model inputs of cloud and surface properties were derived from ISCCP pixel level (DX) data, temperature and humidity profiles from GEOS-4 reanalysis products, and column ozone from a composite of TOMS and TOVS data. Several top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiation budget parameters were also derived with the primary algorithms. Surface fluxes from all algorithms were extensively validated with ground-based measurements obtained from the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN), the Global Energy Balance Archive (GEBA), and the World Radiation Data Center (WRDC) archives. This dataset is a major contributor to the GEWEX Radiative Flux Assessment activity. This presentation will provide an overview of the latest version of the dataset with global and zonal statistics of fluxes, inferred cloud radiative forcing, and results of the validation activities. The time series of SRB parameters at the TOA and surface for global, land, ocean, and tropical areas means will be presented and analyzed for variability and consistency with other long-term datasets such as the ISCCP-FD. Results will be summarized to characterize the uncertainties and future plan will be presented to address the deficiencies.
- Publication:
-
AGU Spring Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006AGUSM.A22B..04G
- Keywords:
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- 0321 Cloud/radiation interaction;
- 1640 Remote sensing (1855);
- 3305 Climate change and variability (1616;
- 1635;
- 3309;
- 4215;
- 4513);
- 3311 Clouds and aerosols;
- 3359 Radiative processes