Clouds and Earth Radiant Energy System (CERES), a review: Past,present and future

The Clouds and Earth Radiant Energy System (CERES) project’s objectives are to measure the reflected solar radiance (shortwave) and Earth-emitted (longwave) radiances and from these measurements to compute the shortwave and longwave radiation fluxes at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) and the surface and radiation divergence within the atmosphere. The fluxes at TOA are to be retrieved to an accuracy of 2%. Improved bidirectional reflectance distribution functions (BRDFs) have been developed to compute the fluxes at TOA from the measured radiances with errors reduced from ERBE by a factor of two or more. Instruments aboard the Terra and Aqua spacecraft provide sampling at four local times. In order to further reduce temporal sampling errors, data are used from the geostationary meteorological satellites to account for changes of scenes between observations by the CERES radiometers.     

Determination of Angular Distribution Models for Indian desert scene: Comparison with other desert models

In this paper, the shortwave and longwave anisotropy for clear sky Indian desert scene has been estimated using long-term surface data, radiative transfer calculations and Helmholtz reciprocity for missing values. This study is important in the perspective of the low inclination satellites like Megha–Tropiques (MT) mission, carrying Scanner for Radiation Budget (ScaRaB) payload, which will provide broadband radiative fluxes at the top of the atmosphere (TOA). Due to low inclination angle, the angular models for clear sky land scenes for the MT-ScaRaB orbits will be dominated by desert points.The Angular Distribution Models (ADMs) determined in this study were compared with existing desert models. It is observed that for longwave radiation, the largest disagreement is observed for higher values of viewing zenith angle, especially for the summer season, where the difference in flux can reach up to 13 W/m². For the shortwave radiation, higher values of both solar zenith angle and viewing zenith angle cause largest incongruity in the computed albedo from the different models, suggesting the need of caution in interpretation of the flux computations from these bins. In fact at the higher solar zenith angle bin, the disparity in albedo can go up to 6.4%.     

Uncertainties in the production and propagation of cosmic rays in the Milky Way

We discuss the main sources of uncertainties in the calculation of the positron and antiproton top of the atmosphere spectra using models including diffusion and convection or reacceleration. We show that, even including uncertainties, the models that include diffusion and convection are more consistent with existing measurements. The next generation experiments like PAMELA will help to reduce the uncertainties in the values of the main free parameters of the models, thus improving our knowledge of the origin and propagation of cosmic rays.     

The sensitivity of the earth's radiation budget to changes in cloudiness

Cloudiness modulates the radiation budget at the top of the Earth-atmosphere system. For radiation balance studies, for climate diagnostic studies, and for climate modeling studies, it is important to know the sensitivity of both the outgoing longwave radiation and the net (absorbed solar minus outgoing longwave) radiation of the system to changes in cloudiness on a global basis. Based on a 45 month series of NOAA satellite scanning radiometer observations, estimates of the global distribution of these sensitivity parameters are obtained.     

Remote sensing of aerosol and radiation from geostationary satellites

The paper presents a high-level overview of current and future remote sensing of aerosol and shortwave radiation budget carried out at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from the US Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) series. The retrievals from the current GOES imagers are based on physical principles. Aerosol and radiation are estimated in separate processing from the comparison of satellite-observed reflectances derived from a single visible channel with those calculated from detailed radiative transfer. The radiative transfer calculation accounts for multiple scattering by molecules, aerosol and cloud and absorption by the major atmospheric gases. The retrievals are performed operationally every 30 min for aerosol and every hour for radiation for pixel sizes of 4-km (aerosol) and 15- to 50-km (radiation). Both retrievals estimate the surface reflectance as a byproduct from the time composite of clear visible reflectances assuming fixed values of the aerosol optical depth. With the launch of GOES-R NOAA will begin a new era of geostationary remote sensing. The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) onboard GOES-R will offer capabilities for aerosol remote sensing similar to those currently provided by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flown on the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites. The ABI aerosol algorithm currently under development uses a multi-channel approach to estimate the aerosol optical depth and aerosol model simultaneously, both over water and land. Its design is strongly inspired by the MODIS aerosol algorithm. The ABI shortwave radiation budget algorithm is based on the successful GOES Surface and Insolation Product system of NOAA and the NASA Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES), Surface and Atmospheric Radiation Budget (SARB) algorithm. In all phases of the development, the algorithms are tested with proxy data generated from existing satellite observations and forward simulations. Final assessment of the performance will be made after the launch of GOES-R scheduled in 2012.     

CM-SAF surface radiation budget: First results with AVHRR data

In the phase of redefinition of the EUMETSAT ground segment seven so called Satellite Application Facilities (SAF) each of them serving dedicated user groups have been established in Europe. The SAF on climate monitoring (CM-SAF) will deliver a comprehensive set of climate variables, including from different cloud products, radiation budget at the top of the atmosphere, surface radiation budget and tropospheric humidity. A consistent dataset of cloud and radiation products in a high spatial resolution on a uniform grid is derived. The CM-SAF is a joint project of the German Meteorological Service, EUMETSAT and five other European Meteorological Services. It is dedicated to produce climate datasets using data from instruments onboard of METEOSAT Second Generation and polar orbiting satellites NOAA and METOP. After the development phase, the CM-SAF has started its initial operational phase in the end of 2003. In this context, the algorithms have been implemented at the processing centres and the processing of satellite data from the polar orbiting satellites of NOAA has commenced. This paper gives an overview of the first products of surface radiative fluxes and their validation with selected surface sites.     

On the derivation of radiation budget parameters at the surface from satellite measurements

The modelling of climate and circulation processes requires more than ever before accurate data on the energy exchange between the earth's surface and the atmosphere. Accuracies are estimated to range between 2–20 Wm^?2 for global and monthly averages. The four components of the radiation budget at ground can still not at all be derived with sufficient accuracy from satellite measurements and from correlative data of conventional surface based origin. In this paper are discussed the general possibilities. Basic research is still required to establish a reliable error budget, and ground truth is essential.     

Effects of optical parameter measurement uncertainties and solar irradiance fluctuations on solar sailing

The heliocentric orbital dynamics of a spacecraft propelled by a solar sail is affected by some uncertainty sources, including possible inaccuracies in the measurement of the sail film optical properties. Moreover, the solar radiation pressure, which is responsible for the solar sail propulsive acceleration generation, is not time-constant and is subject to fluctuations that are basically unpredictable and superimposed to the well-known 11-year solar activity cycle. In this context, this work aims at investigating the effects of such uncertainties on the actual heliocentric trajectory of a solar sail by means of stochastic simulations performed with a generalized polynomial chaos procedure. The numerical results give an estimation of their impact on the actual heliocentric trajectory and identify whether some of the uncertainty sources are more relevant than others. This is a fundamental information for directing more accurate theoretical and experimental efforts toward the most important parameters, in order to obtain an accurate knowledge of the solar sail thrust vector characteristics and, eventually, of the spacecraft heliocentric position.     

Surface temperatures at the nearside of the Moon as a record of the radiation budget of Earth’s climate system

Understanding the balance between incoming radiation from the Sun and outgoing radiation from Earth is of critical importance in the study of climate change on Earth. As the only natural satellite of Earth, the Moon is a unique platform for the study of the disk-wide radiation budget of Earth. There are no complications from atmosphere, hydrosphere, or biosphere on the Moon. The nearside of the Moon allows for a focus on the solar radiation during its daytime, and on terrestrial radiation during its nighttime. Additionally, lunar regolith temperature is an amplifier of the terrestrial radiation signal because lunar temperature is proportional to the fourth square root of radiation as such is much more sensitive to the weak terrestrial radiation in nighttime than the strong solar radiation in daytime. Indeed, the long-term lunar surface temperature time series obtained inadvertently by the Heat Flow Experiment at the Apollo 15 landing site three decades ago may be the first important observation from deep space of both incoming and outgoing radiation of the terrestrial climate system. A revisit of the lunar surface temperature time series reveals distinct characteristics in lunar surface daytime and nighttime temperature variations, governed respectively by solar and terrestrial radiation.     

Uncertainties in gravity wave parameters,momentum fluxes,and flux divergences estimated from multi-layer measurements of mesospheric nightglow layers

Measurements of dynamic parameters of atmospheric gravity waves, mainly the vertical wavelength, the momentum flux and the momentum flux divergence, are affected by large uncertainties crudely documented in the scientific literature. By using methods of error analysis, we have quantified these uncertainties for frequently observed temporal and spatial wave scales. The results show uncertainties of ～10%, ～35%, and ～65%, at least, in the vertical wavelength, momentum flux, and flux divergence, respectively. The large uncertainties in the momentum flux and flux divergence are dominated by uncertainties in the Brunt-Väisälä frequency and in spatial separation of the nightglow layers, respectively. The measured uncertainties in fundamental wave parameters such as the wave amplitude, intrinsic period, horizontal wavelength, and wave orientation are ～10% or less and estimated directly from our nightglow image data set. Other key environmental quantities such as the scale height and the Brunt-Väisälä frequency, frequently considered as constants in gravity wave parameter estimations schemes, are actually quite variable, presenting uncertainties of ～4% and ～9%, respectively, according to the several solar activity and seasonal atmosphere scenarios from the NRLMSISE-00 model simulated here.     

Climatology of extreme upper atmospheric heating events

We use a trio of empirical models to estimate the relative contributions of solar extreme ultraviolet heating, Joule heating and particle heating to the global energy budget of the earth’s upper atmosphere. Daily power values are derived from the models for the three heat sources. The SOLAR2000 solar irradiance specification model provides estimates of the daily extreme EUV solar power input. Geomagnetic power comes from a combination of satellite-derived electron precipitation power and an empirical model of Joule power derived from hemispherically integrated estimates of high-latitude heating, which we discuss in this paper. From 1975 to mid-2002, the average daily contributions were electrons: 51 GW, Joule: 95 GW and solar: 784 GW. Joule and particle heating combine to provide more than 17% of the total global upper atmospheric heating. For the top 10% and 1% of heating events, contributions rise to 20% and 25%, respectively. In the top 15 heating events, geomagnetic power contributed more than 50% of the total power budget. During three events, the Joule power alone exceeded solar power.     

行星大气1~3000GHz微波-亚毫米波辐射模拟

为模拟行星大气在微波elax-elax亚毫米波波段的辐射传输特性,利用逐线积分方法计算行星大气中各气体成分在1~3000GHz的吸收系数.基于HITRAN数据库中各气体分子的跃迁频率及线强等参数,有效模拟了各气体分子在此频段内的吸收特征,并与常用的微波elax-elax亚毫米波大气辐射传输模式进行对比.分析地球大气的组成及特性,利用辐射传输方程模拟临边探测方式下不同频段的大气辐射亮温.研究结果可为后续地球乃至行星大气成分探测模拟、频带选择以及大气成分廓线反演提供模型及理论依据.      

Planet temperatures with surface cooling parameterized

A semigray (shortwave and longwave) surface temperature model is developed from conditions on Venus, Earth and Mars, where the greenhouse effect is mostly due to carbon dioxide and water vapor. In addition to estimating longwave optical depths, parameterizations are developed for surface cooling due to shortwave absorption in the atmosphere, and for convective (sensible and latent) heat transfer. An approximation to the Clausius–Clapeyron relation provides water–vapor feedback. The resulting iterative algorithm is applied to three “super-Earths” in the Gliese 581 system, including the “Goldilocks” planet g (Vogt et al., 2010). Surprisingly, none of the three appear habitable. One cannot accurately locate a star’s habitable zone without data or assumptions about a planet’s atmosphere.     

火星信道衰落特性对通信链路预算的影响

对火星星体段的信道衰落特性进行研究.通过对近火段自然环境因素的分析,提取影响火星通信性能的因素,重点分析火星的大气、云雾、沙尘对通信信道的衰落作用机理;并以NASA实际火星探测任务为例,针对以上衰落因素对UHF,S,X和Ka频段下的通信链路影响情况进行仿真;结合实际探测数据对地球通信链路预算模型进行修正,提出一种适用于火星通信链路预算的模型;明确火星大气衰落、云雾衰落、沙尘衰落的取值范围.研究结果可作为火星及其他深空探测任务的通信系统设计与链路复核复算的参考.      

Land use and cover change (LUCC) impacts on Earth’s eco-environments: Research progress and prospects

Land use and cover change (LUCC) is one of the key variables dominating land–atmosphere interactions and strongly affects the Earth’s eco-environments by altering surface properties. Numerous studies have been carried out to assess the impact of LUCC. However, the Earth is a large, open and complex system characterized by complex interactions between its eco-environments and drivers. This study aimed to summarize previous studies of the impact of LUCC on the Earth’s eco-environments and discuss the progress and limitations in suggesting future directions. Previous studies have confirmed that LUCC has a wide range of impacts on the Earth’s eco-environments, which are represented by the alternation of climate (temperature, precipitation, wind, and humidity), hydrology (soil moisture, runoff, and evapotranspiration), ecology and environmental (air, water, and soil) pollution. Physically, the impacts were mainly attributed to the disturbance of the surface radiation budget and matter conservation caused by LUCC. Although great achievements have been made, several challenges remain because of the unavoidable uncertainties in data sources and methodologies and the complexity of eco-environmental evolution. Therefore, data assimilation, physical-based investigations, contribution isolation, and full-process analysis are required to overcome these challenges in future research. The results of this study helped to capture the impact of LUCC and its physical mechanisms, which provide useful clues for future research and support the relative land use management for sustainable development.     

Neutron spectra at flight altitudes and their radiological estimation

Since the publication of the ICRP-report 60, air crews and other frequently flying persons are considered as occupationally exposed people. At civil flight levels neutrons contribute the major part to the radiologically relevant dose to men. The quantification of the neutron dose, and herewith the radiation risk due to neutrons, suffers from spectral data available especially in the energy range above 20 MeV. Experimental data were recently obtained at a low flight level on top of the mountain Zugspitze at 3000 m using a modified Bonner sphere spectrometer. The resulting spectra are compared with Monte-Carlo transport calculations from top of the atmosphere down to 700 g/cm². These data and others from the literature are used to calculate operational and risk related quantities, i.e. ambient dose equivalent and effective dose.     

Investigation of the atmospheric aerosols by the visible and IR channels of the AVHRR radiometer on NOAA-6

The diffusely reflected radiation in the daytime and diffusely transmitted radiation at night from an inhomogeneous, plane parallel planetary atmosphere bounded by the ocean surface was calculated at the visible and IR region. In the daytime the effect of the solar radiation from top was taken into account. The present study has dealt with the problem of no cloud contamination in data. In the atmosphere, water vapor, molecular nitrogen, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and methane as absorbent constituents and aerosols as the scattering constituent were taken into account. The ocean surface as a lower boundary was simulated by many facets whose slopes are according to the isotropic Gaussian distribution [1]. It was found that it is suitable for deriving the total optical thickness in the direction of about 15 degrees away from the specular direction at 3.7μm in the daytime, with the aid of visible region of spectrum [2]. As for sea surface temperature, for a sample analysis, derived SST was within the accuracy of 1–2K at the center of the sun glint and within the accuracy of 0.5K in the rest of the region at 3.7μm in the daytime, Furthermore computational results suggest that the comparison of temperature in the daytime with that at night at 3.7μm make it possible to separate the effect of aerosols from the total optical thickness. Thus it was found from the computations that with the aid of daytime and night time data, it is possible to derive the atmospheric water vapor, aerosols and sea surface temperature simultaneously.     

Disturbance observer based model predictive control for accurate atmospheric entry of spacecraft

Facing the complex aerodynamic environment of Mars atmosphere, a composite atmospheric entry trajectory tracking strategy is investigated in this paper. External disturbances, initial states uncertainties and aerodynamic parameters uncertainties are the main problems. The composite strategy is designed to solve these problems and improve the accuracy of Mars atmospheric entry. This strategy includes a model predictive control for optimized trajectory tracking performance, as well as a disturbance observer based feedforward compensation for external disturbances and uncertainties attenuation. 500-run Monte Carlo simulations show that the proposed composite control scheme achieves more precise Mars atmospheric entry (3.8?km parachute deployment point distribution error) than the baseline control scheme (8.4?km) and integral control scheme (5.8?km).     

On the influence of rough water surfaces on polarimetric investigations of aerosols from space

The equation of radiative transfer is solved for the complete Stokes' vector in order to study the polarization of solar radiation on top of a turbid atmosphere.The surface characteristics (bidirectional anisotropy and polarization properties of randomly oriented water surface elements) are contained in the lower boundary condition of the integro-differential equation. Results of surface model calculations are compared with polarimeter measurements of a natural scenario.On top of the atmosphere the degree of polarization is found to depend generally on the turbidity of the atmosphere. The degree of polarization reaches its maximum in the vicinity of the angle of specular reflection on the water surface, if the sun's zenith distance is about the Brewster's angle.According to the model calculations observation angles can be found where the degree of polarization does not depend on the surface roughness. Apparently these angles have to be preferred for determination of the atmospheric turbidity.