Nimbus-earth radiation budget sensor characterization for improved data reduction fidelity

Detailed characterizations of flight spare earth flux sensors from the Nimbus Earth Radiation Budget (ERB) program have been performed which, when coupled with a more careful accounting of the orbital instrument environment, provide the potential for improved accuracy in the final data products. The characterizations included detailed field-of-view mappings, responses to transient long and short wavelength radiation, and response to sensor temperature changes. These sensor and environment characterizations, along with the outstanding low noise and stability properties of the ERB instrument signal processing system, promise improvement of the data accuracy to levels sufficient for long-term budget and climatological purposes. The combined data sets from Nimbus 6 and 7 are expected to span a period in excess of 10 years. The improvements in data accuracy are particularly significant over zonal latitude bands because the corrections are strongly latitude dependent.