PROJECT TITLE :

Time-Sampling Errors of Earth Radiation From Satellites: Theory for Monthly Mean Albedo

ABSTRACT:

The planet Radiation Budget Experiment wide-field-of-read (WFOV) radiometers aboard the world Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) provided a 15-year record of high-quality measurements for analysis into the radiant energy balance of the world. Monthly mean maps of RSR and outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) are primary information merchandise from these measurements. The ERBS orbit had an inclination of 57° so on precess through all local times every seventy two days. As a result of of limited temporal sampling, some regions weren't measured sufficiently typically by the WFOV radiometers to supply correct radiation flux values for these maps. The temporal sampling of anybody region is very irregular; therefore, it is necessary to consider every region intimately for every month. An analysis of the errors, that result from computing the typical price of the albedo of a vicinity over every day or month based on limited sampling, is presented. It is necessary to require under consideration synoptic variations and their time correlations and variations of the regions' diurnal cycle from that assumed by the time-averaging algorithms. An expression is derived for the variance of the error of the computed daily and monthly mean albedo. Temporal correlation and variability of the albedo field are specified a priori. This analysis has been used for quality assurance to guage the temporal sampling errors of monthly mean RSR maps computed from the measurements by the WFOV radiometers aboard the ERBS and to delete those values for which the error variance is excessive.