NASA ERBE

The data are here.

For those that would prefer a CD-ROM to downloading or manipulating on-line, see the CD-ROM link.

The goals of the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) are:

to understand the radiation balance between the Sun, Earth, atmosphere, and space which drives our weather and climate system and
to establish an accurate, long-term baseline dataset for studying climate changes.

Earth Radiation Budget (ERB) data are fundamental to the development of realistic climate models and for studying natural and anthropogenic perturbations of the climate system. (ReadMeFileIntro)

The NASA (ERBE) dataset contains data collected simultaneously by identical ERB instruments on three satellites: the NASA Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS), launched in October 1984, and two National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Sun-synchronous operational satellites, NOAA-9 and NOAA-10, launched in December 1984 and November 1986, respectively. The ERBE satellites have provided the most comprehensive and best resolved ERB measurements ever obtained (ReadMeFileIntro). Data for combined satellite cases are also presented here. These data [on CD-ROM] were obtained from the NASA Langley Research Center EOSDIS Distributed Active Archive Center. The CD-ROM is formatted in the ISO-9660 standard. Monthly average values, for the time periods during which the scanning radiometers were operational, are also included:

ERBS - November 1984 through February 1990
NOAA-9 - February 1985 through January 1986
NOAA-10 - November 1986 through May 1989

The ERBE scanner instrument package contains three instruments used to measure shortwave (0.2 to 5 microns), longwave (5 to 50 microns), and total waveband radiation (0.2 to 200 microns). Each detector scans the Earth from horizon to horizon. The scanners usually operated in a cross track mode; However, ERBS scanned in an along track mode during January 1985 and August 1985, and at an azimuth of 145° during hot orbit periods from December 1985 through February 1990. NOAA-9 operated along track during August of 1985. The NOZZ-10 scanner operated at an azimuth of 35° from January through mid-May and from mid-August through December of each year. (Weaver et al. 1991 and 1992, Bush and Degnan 1994) (ReadMeFileIntro)