The monthly mean shortwave (SW) radiation budget at the Earth’s surface (SRB) was computed on 2.5degree longitude-latitude resolution for the 17-year period from 1984 to 2000, using a radiative transfer model accounting for the key physical parameters that determine the surface SRB, and long-term climatological data from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCPD2). The model...

AIRS was launched on EOS Aqua on May 4, 2002, together with AMSU-A and HSB, to form a next generation polar orbiting infrared and microwave atmospheric sounding system. AIRS is a grating spectrometer with a number of linear arrays of detectors with each detector sensitive to outgoing radiation in a characteristic frequency vi with a spectral band pass Ovi of roughly vi /1200. AIRS contains 2378...

[1] High vertical resolution profiles of cloud properties were obtained from cloud radars operated by the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program on the islands of Nauru and Manus in the Tropical Western Pacific (TWP). Broadband flux calculations using a correlated k-distribution model were performed to estimate the effect of clouds on the total column and vertical distribution of short...

The Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory will be a climate benchmarking mission intended to include instruments for measuring Earth’s atmospheric refractivity by GNSS radio occultation (RO), high spectral resolution thermal infrared spectra emitted from the Earth, and the spectrally resolved reflected shortwave spectrum. Climate benchmarking is necessary to establish a record ...

ENSO surface shortwave radiation forcing over the tropical Pacific K. G. Pavlakis, N. Hatzianastassiou, C. Matsoukas, A. Fotiadi, and I. Vardavas Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas, Heraklion, Crete, Greece Department of General Applied Science, Technological Educational Institute of Crete, Greece Department of Physics, University of Crete, Crete, Greece Laboratory of Meteorology, De...

The Medium-Resolution Spectral Imager (MERSI) is one of the major payloads of China’s second-generation polar-orbiting meteorological satellite, FengYun-3 (FY-3), and it is similar to the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The MERSI data are suitable for mapping terrestrial, atmospheric and oceanographic variables at continental to global scales. This study presents a direct...

Forecast systems provide decision support for end-users ranging from the solar energy industry to municipalities concerned with road safety. Pavement temperature is an important variable when considering vehicle response to various weather conditions. A complex, yet direct relationship exists between tire and pavement temperatures. Literature has shown that as tire temperature increases, fricti...

Increases in anthropogenic aerosols in the atmosphere tend to increase the reflectance of solar (shortwave) radiation from water clouds, which can lead to lower surface temperatures. Here an opposing effect whereby aerosols increase the longwave emissivity of thin clouds that adds to the warming of the earth’s surface, is discussed. The latter effect may be particularly important in the Arctic,...