The longwave radiation estimated from NOAA polar orbiting satellites: An update and comparison with Nimbus-7 ERB results

The planetary outgoing longwave radiation has been estimated since 1974 from two different series of NOAA operational polar spacecraft. The first series provided data from June 1974 through February 1978 and was designated “SR” for the scaning radiometers used at that time. This data set has been used in a variety of radiation budget and climate studies, such as that by Ohring and Gruber, 1983. The second satellite system is the currently operational TIROS-N series of satellites. Data from this series began in January 1979 and are continuing. In both systems, estimates of the outgoing longwave radiation are obtained from narrow spectral interval (10–12 μm) window radiances. A comparison is made of the estimates from the two different series of satellites in order to arrive at an assessment of their compatibility. This is important since the SR observations were taken at approximately 0900 and 2100 local times, while the TIROS-N data alternate between 0730-1930 and 0300-1500 local times. In addition, there is a period of overlap between the TIROS-N data and the broad band (5–50 μm) Nimbus 7 EArth radiation budget data. A comparison of those two data sets indiciate excellent agreement generally within about 1–2 Wm^?2 on the monthly means on global and hemispherical scales. Comparisons of zonal averages indicate maximum differences as large as 9 Wm^?2.Evidence is presented to suggest that observations taken at different local observing times may be biased by the diurnal variation of emitted flux, even on global scales.     

Climatic variations in the outgoing longwave radiation of the past decade as observed from NOAA polar orbiting satellites

Components of the earth radiation budget have been calculated on a regular basis since June 1974 (except for a 10 month gap in data in 1978) based on measurements by the scanning radiometers and the advanced very high resolution radiometers on the operational NOAA polar orbiting satellites. A new base set of monthly and seasonal averages of outgoing longwave radiation has been prepared by NOAA's Climate Analysis Center (CAC) for the entire period of record through November 1983. Anomalies relative to these new normals have now been constructed for each month and season in the entire record.In this presentation, some of the more prominent anomalies of outgoing longwave radiation over the past decade are discussed. A major concentration is on the tropics and subtropics where there have been very substantial radiation variations associated with major shifts in convective cloudiness accompanying El Niño/Southern Oscillation events.     

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.     

Cloudiness over the Eastern Equatorial Pacific for summer 1983 from geostationary satellite data

The extraordinary El-Nino event of 1982–83 started to fade out in the late spring of 1983. However the sea surface temperature of the Eastern Equatorial Pacific still remained warmer than normal in the following summer. To investigate the characteristics of this late transition phase of the 1982–83 El-Nino, the GOES-West satellite data of July and August of 1983 are analyzed. The outgoing longwave radiation field and the distribution of cloudiness, which was derived by using a new threshold technique, are obtained. The longwave radiation field is compared to monthly average climatic indices commonly used at the Climatic Analysis Center. The results of cloud analysis showed some interesting features during the decaying phase of the 1982–83 El-Nino. The diurnal variation of cloudiness indicates that total cloud amounts decrease from 8 GMT to 20 GMT over most of the area. This overall study demonstrates preliminary results of the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project of the World Climate Research Program.     

Studies of the radiation budget anomalies over Antarctica during 1974–1983, and their possible relationship to climatic variations

We present the results of a study of anomalies, which are defined as differences of seasonal means from the data set seasonal means, in the Earth's radiation budget from the analysis of nine years of ten day mean observations derived from the NOAA polar orbiter satellites for the period, 1974–1983. We estimate that the standard deviation in the outgoing longwave flux for this period is less than 12 Wm^?2 and typically 7 Wm^?2. The results show that there are several geographical areas for which the standard deviation is in excess of 20 Wm^?2; in such regions the radiation budget anomalies exceeded these due to natural atmospheric variability. In this paper we discuss the relationship of these anomalies with climatic change.     

An examination of a technique for estimating the longwave radiation budget from satellite radiance observations

Intercomparisons of the zonally averaged outgoing longwave fluxes estimated from 10 μm radiance observations on NOAA polar orbiters and flat plate observations on the Nimbus 6 ERB experiment have shown the NOAA estimates to be higher than the ERB measurements. Our analysis shows that the operational technique systematically overestimates calculated fluxes for middle and high cloud conditions. A different radiative transfer model and new assumptions concerning clouds reduce the NOAA-ERB flux difference by approximately 35%.     

Is there an abnormal enhancement of atmospheric aerosol before the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake?

There are extensive reports of ionospheric disturbances before the great 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, which are possibly explained by seismogenic electric field hypotheses linked with the aerosols injected in atmosphere. This paper attempts to investigate the possible change of atmospheric aerosol optical depth (AOD) associated with this earthquake by using MODIS data from both Terra and Aqua satellites. The result shows a clear enhancement of AOD along the Longmenshan faults 7 days before the quake, which is 1 day and 4 days earlier than the reported negative and positive ionospheric disturbances, respectively, and is 1 day earlier than or quasi-synchronism with other reported atmospheric anomalies including air temperature, outgoing longwave radiation and relative humidity. Particularly, the spatial distribution of AOD enhancement is very local and it is correlated well with the active faults and surface ruptures. We suggest that this unique enhancement could be associated with the Lithosphere–Atmosphere–Ionosphere coupling process during the preparation of the Wenchuan earthquake.     

Short-term periodicities in the downward longwave radiation and their associations with cosmic ray and solar interplanetary data

In this study downward longwave (LW) atmospheric radiation data for the period of 2014–2020 were used to search for short-term periodicities using fast Fourier transform (FFT). Several local peaks in the power spectrum density were found and established. The time series exhibits a series of significant peaks (exceeding the 95% confidence limit), such as at 273 days, 227 days, 200 days, 178 days, 157 days, 110 days, 120 days, 87 days, 73 days, 53–56 days, 35–30 days, 25–27 days, 21 days, 13 days, and 9–10 days.Moreover, cosmic ray data from KACST muon detector and the Oulu neutron monitor, as well as the data for the solar radio flux at 10.7 cm (F10.7 cm), Dst index, and solar wind speed for the same period as the LW data, were used to look for common cyclic variations and periodicities matching those found in the LW radiation. This was done to investigate the possible effect of the solar activity parameters on LW radiation. Several common periodicities were observed in the spectra of all the variables considered, such as 227 days, 154–157 days, 25–27 days, and 21 days. Some of the periodicities found in the LW radiation spectrum can be attributed to the modulation of the cosmic ray intensity by solar activity. Others are attributed to the disturbances in the interplanetary magnetic field. Based on the spectral results, we suggest that the solar signals may directly or indirectly affect the variations of the downward longwave radiation, which in turn may affect climate change.     

Time distribution of the precipitable water vapor in central Saudi Arabia and its relationship to solar activity

Water vapor is the most important greenhouse gas. It plays a major role in the dynamics of atmospheric circulation, radiation exchange within the atmosphere, and climate variability. Knowledge of the distribution of water vapor is important for understanding climate change and global warming.     

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.     

Progress of 2014—2016 China's Earth Observation and Earth Science

The support given by Earth observation data and Earth system science play an increasingly important role in global change, regional sustainable development, extreme events, and the development of social and economic needs. This field is also moving towards systematization, platforms, and standardized development. In December 2015, nearly 200 parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change agreed in Paris to make arrangements for global action in response to climate change by 2020. China jointly issued a climate change adaptation strategy for cities in 2016 and then elevated national action to respond to climate change. China's Earth Observation and Earth Science development is facing new challenges as it supports the national civil space infrastructure and high-resolution Earth observation system.      

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%.     

Determination of surface albedo from satellites

The dynamical features of the climate system result from the interaction of the atmosphere with the surface. The hope for improving climate prediction, on seasonal and interannual time scales, is based on the premise that slowly varying boundary conditions force well defined predictable patterns of general circulation.It is now recognized that in models of surface climate over land, surface properties should not be regarded as constants and that it is important to specify a realistic value of the surface albedo¹ in order to correctly estimate the amount of solar radiation absorbed at the surface. The albedo is also considered by some as an internal dependent parameter of climate, since it time integrates the effects of changes in more variable quantities, such as rainfall.The global nature of the links between forcing and response imply global monitoring of the parameters which control the transfer and feedback of the energy at the surface/atmosphere interface. Satellites can play an important role in resolving the difficult problem of properly representing the average surface albedo over large areas. However, satellites measure only the earth-atmosphere reflectance in narrow spectral intervals, narrow solid angles, and in most cases at a fixed local time. To derive from these observations the effective surface albedo, one has to compute the total reflected planetary flux, integrated over the whole solar spectrum, over all the viewing angles, and over time. A transformation from top of the atmosphere to the surface is also required.In this presentation the implications of atmospheric corrections, bidirectional reflectance, and transformations from narrow spectral bands to the total solar spectrum for albedo derivations will be addressed. Also, the various attempts to derive surface reflectivity and surface albedo from satellites will be reviewed.     

太阳活动与全球气候变化

太阳不断向地球辐射电磁波和粒子, 太阳辐射是地球气候系统最主要的能量来源. 地球气候系统对太阳活动的响应是一个复杂的过程, 包括辐射过程、动力学过程以及微观物理过程等. 根据太阳辐射的卫星观测结果和重建结果, 例举了古气候、温度、大气环流和云量等方面太阳影响气候的观测证据, 论述了太阳影响气候的三种可能机制, 即太阳总辐射变化可以影响地表温度, 并通过海-气耦合改变大气环流; 太阳紫外辐射通过调制平流层的温度和风场影响下面的对流层; 太阳通过行星际磁场调制银河宇宙线, 而银河宇宙线通过电离大气影响云量, 进而改变地球的能量收支.      

Partially ionized atmospheres of neutron stars with strong magnetic fields

We construct hydrogen atmosphere models for strongly magnetized neutron stars in thermodynamic equilibrium, taking into account partial ionization. The presence of bound states affects the equation of state, absorption coefficients, and polarizability tensor of a strongly magnetized plasma. Therefore the partial ionization influences the polarization vectors and opacities of normal electromagnetic waves, and thus the spectra of outgoing radiation. Here, we review a model suitable for the most typical neutron-star atmospheres and focus on the problems that remain to be solved for its extension to other atmospheric parameters.     

Progress in space weather predictions and applications

The methods of today’s predictions of space weather and effects are so much more advanced and yesterday’s statistical methods are now replaced by integrated knowledge-based neuro-computing models and MHD methods. Within the ESA Space Weather Programme Study a real-time forecast service has been developed for space weather and effects. This prototype is now being implemented for specific users. Today’s applications are not only so many more but also so much more advanced and user-oriented. A scientist needs real-time predictions of a global index as input for an MHD model calculating the radiation dose for EVAs. A power company system operator needs a prediction of the local value of a geomagnetically induced current. A science tourist needs to know whether or not aurora will occur. Soon we might even be able to predict the tropospheric climate changes and weather caused by the space weather.     

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.     

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.