Surface Radiation Budget (SRB)

As of December 2010 a 24.5-year (July 1983 to December 2007) data set of surface and top-of-atmosphere (TOA) shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) radiative fluxes is available. The data set is produced, archived, and made available to the science community in both a binary and netCDF format by the NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Sciences Data Center. It is designated as SRB Release 3.0 and supersedes the 22.5-year SRB Release-2.5/2.81 data set made public 3 years ago. The data set is produced on a 1º x 1º global grid using satellite-derived cloud parameters and ozone fields, reanalysis meteorology, and a few other ancillary data sets.

Both SW and LW surface fluxes are computed with two sets of algorithms: one designated as primary, and the other as quality-check. TOA fluxes are derived with primary algorithms only. All except the quality-check SW algorithm compute fluxes at a 3-hourly resolution, which are then averaged into daily, monthly, and monthly/3-hourly values. Quality-check SW fluxes are computed at a daily resolution and averaged into monthly values. Surface fluxes from all algorithms have been extensively validated with ground-based measurements obtained from sources that include the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN), the Global Energy Balance Archive. For more information about this data set, see the Febuary 2011 issue of GEWEX News and http://gewex-srb.larc.nasa.gov.

The data is available at: http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/PRODOCS/srb/table_srb.html.

More information about the data set release can be obtained by contacting Dr. Paul Stackhouse at NASA Langley Research Center.

Shortwave radiation parameters for March 1985-December 1988 (SRB Version 1.1) are available on CD-ROM, tape and via FTP at the Langley DAAC.

SRB data for July 1983 to August 1994, based on ISCCP D1 Observations is available upon request at  srb@atmos.umd.edu

Real-time GEWEX Continental Scale International Project (GCIP) Surface Radiation Budget Data are available at Global Land Cover Facility.

Data from the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Program/Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program/GEWEX Experiment (CAGEX) are a validation source for SRB. CAGEX is an ongoing campaign that provides calculated radiative fluxes, input data, and validating measurements over the ARM Cloud and Radiation Testbed (CART) site in Oklahoma. For more information see the CAGEX Home Page.

Note:  CAGEX is slowly being replaced by the new CERES/ARM Validation Experiment (CAVE) web site. CAVE has surface observations at 44 different locations around the globe with the latest collocated TOA CERES broadband radiation observations. You may access CAVE at: http://www-cave.larc.nasa.gov/cave/.