University of Maryland Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Surface Radiation Budget Activity

Information on the gain or loss of radiant energy at the Earth's surface is needed to address problems related to climate issues, hydrologic and bio-geophysical modelling, solar energy applications, and agriculture. At the University of Maryland, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, Surface Radiation Budget (SRB) Research Group, has been developing methods to infer components of surface radiative fluxes from satellite observations. Selected information on past and current related activities are provided in what follows:

• GCIP/GAPP
  

  This was an early attempt to provide the user community with surface radiation budget (SRB) information over the United States, as generated at the University of Maryland and by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS). This activity was in support of the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Continental Scale International Project (GCIP) and the GEWEX Americas Prediction Project (GAPP). For details go to: GCIP_GAP_Manuscipts.

• PATHFINDER

  Under the joint NOAA/NASA PATHFINDER activity, uniform, long term data sets from observations made from numerous satellites, were prepared. Of particular interest are the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) D1 and DX data as gridded to 2.5o and as sampled at 30 km resolution, respectively. Surface radiative fluxes at 2.5 and 0.5 degree spatial resolution, produced under this activity at the University of Maryland, have been archived at NASA Langley. For details go to: Selected_PATHFINDER_Manuscripts.

• PAR

  In the framework of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate and Global Change Program objectives to improve the ability to observe, understand, and predict climate and its response to changes in global environment, an activity to derive Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) from satellite observations, was undertaken. Capabilities were developed to derive PAR on global scale from satellite observations. For details go to: Selected _PAR_Manuscripts.

•  EOS Validation

  Under this project, in collaboration with African scientists, a validation activity in a desert encroachment zone in sub-Sahel Africa was undertaken. The site is located on the campus of the University of Ilorin, Nigeria, in a transition zone between the Sahara Desert and the savanna zone of upper Nigeria. This is a climatically important region due to its location in a desert transition zone and because of the influence of the dusty Harmattan wind which is persistent for prolonged periods of time and characterized by steady dusty conditions with high aerosol loading. Observations were made of surface radiative fluxes, as well as aerosol optical depth, as part of the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET). It is a federation of ground-based remote sensing aerosol networks established by NASA and PHOTONS (PHOtométrie pour le Traitement Opérationnel de Normalisation Satellitaire; Univ. of Lille, CNES, and CNRS-INSU) and greatly expanded by numerous collaborators. For more than 25 years, the project has provided long-term, continuous database of aerosol optical, microphysical and radiative properties for aerosol research and validation of satellite retrievals. For details go to: EOS_Validation_Manuscripts EOS_Validation_Manuscripts.

• LBA

  The Large Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA) was an international research project led by Brazil. The world's tropical forests are under major stress of conversion to various forms of land use. NASA provided support for two components of the LBA program. One dealt with the ecology of the region and the other deals with the hydrologic cycle. Under the hydrology component spaceborne remote sensing capabilities were to define the basin scale forcing functions, such as radiative fluxes that are necessary to advance the understanding of the role of water in land-atmosphere interactions. For details go to: LBA_Manuscripts.

• CEOP

  The Coordinated Energy and water cycle Observations Project (CEOP) was a merger of the previous World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Global Energy and Water-cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Hydrometeorology Panel (GHP) and the 'Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period' ('CEOP'), which was an element of WCRP initiated by GEWEX. Among the key objectives of CEOP were: production of consistent research quality data of the Earth's energy budget and water cycle and their variability on interannual to decadal time scales, for use in climate system analysis and model development and evaluation; and improve the predictive capability for key water and energy cycle variables. The objective of this project was to develop capabilities to derive atmospheric radiative fluxes for selected CEOP regions as a step towards capabilities to test hydrological model transferability. Addressed are issues related to differences in the satellite observing systems, issues related to the uniqueness of the various climatic regions, and incorporation of inference scheme improvements and updated auxiliary information. For details go to: CEOP_Manuscripts.

• Atlantic

  The objective of this project was to evaluate, as accurately as possible, the total surface momentum, energy and mass budgets over the tropical and subtropical Atlantic Ocean, and determine uncertainties. Focus of the project: Development of satellite-based estimates of surface heat flux components in the Atlantic Ocean for a period for which all flux components are available and develop a merging strategy initially, for a three-year period; set the stage for an extension to ten years; use most recent and improved observations to assess accuracies in the longer-term time series; assess the impact of aerosols on radiative fluxes over the Atlantic Ocean. For details go to: Atlantic_Ocean_Manuscripts.

• NEWS*

  At this site we provide selected data on surface radiative fluxes (shortwave and longwave) as produced in the framework of a NASA Energy and Water Cycle Study (NEWS) program. The data are monthly means at 1° spatial resolution and cover the period of July 1983 to December 2012.

  *NOTE: Site Under Development