Abstract
The usefulness of the radiances measured by operational satellites in deriving radiation budgets is demonstrated by comparing the model calculations with the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) fluxes. The radiation budgets in the atmosphere and at the surface in the western tropical Pacific are computed by coupling radiative transfer models to satellite retrievals of cloud and the earth surface parameters for April 1985 and April 1987. The model-computed fluxes at the top of the atmosphere agree well with the ERBE fluxes in both the solar and IR spectral regions. The difference is <10 W m−2 in the outgoing longwave flux and <15 W m−2 in the net downward shortwave flux. The agreement indicates that long-term earth radiation budgets in the tropical Pacific can be computed using the radiances measured by operational satellites.
