Climate and the Earth's Radiation Budget

Data from NASA's Earth Radiation Budget (ERB) Experiment instruments carried by the ERB Satellite and by NOAA-9 and -10 are presently evaluated, with a view to the role played by clouds in the global radiation energy balance. While an individual water droplet scatters 85 percent of incident energy in the forward direction, a cloud of such drops can scatter 75 percent or more of the energy backward. The resulting enhancement of surface-atmosphere albedo reduces the solar radiation absorbed by the atmospheric column. Clouds also significantly enhance the long-wave opacity of the atmosphere; like gaseous absorption, this reduces the radiation emitted to space.