The earth radiation budget satellite system for climate research

The mission implications of providing earth radiation budget data for climate studies have been thoroughly studied. The results of these studies indicate the need for a multisensor, multisatellite system consisting of high and midinclination orbits. To meet this need, NASA and NOAA are planning a joint Earth Radiation Budget Satellite System (ERBSS) composed of instruments on two of NOAA's near-polar Sun-synchronous TIROS-N/NOAA A through G series of operational satellites and on an NASA midinclination satellite of the Applications Explorer Mission (AEM) type referred to as ERBS-A/AEM. This paper describes the scientific objectives of ERBSS, the associated data analysis methods, mission analysis (sampling), and instrument definition.