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Development and Implementation of a Comprehensive Radiometric Validation Protocol for the CERES Earth Radiation Budget Climate Record SensorsThe CERES Flight Models 1 through 4 instruments were launched aboard NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra and Aqua Spacecraft into 705 Km sun-synchronous orbits with 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. equatorial crossing times. These instruments supplement measurements made by the CERES Proto Flight Model (PFM) instrument launched aboard NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) into a 350 Km, 38-degree mid-inclined orbit. CERES Climate Data Records consist of geolocated and calibrated instantaneous filtered and unfiltered radiances through temporally and spatially averaged TOA, Surface and Atmospheric fluxes. CERES filtered radiance measurements cover three spectral bands including shortwave (0.3 to 5 microns), total (0.3 to 100 microns) and an atmospheric window channel (8 to 12 microns). The CERES Earth Radiation Budget measurements represent a new era in radiation climate data, realizing a factor of 2 to 4 improvement in calibration accuracy and stability over the previous ERBE climate records, while striving for the next goal of 0.3-percent per decade absolute stability. The current improvement is derived from two sources: the incorporation of lessons learned from the ERBE mission in the design of the CERES instruments and the development of a rigorous and comprehensive radiometric validation protocol consisting of individual studies covering different spatial, spectral and temporal time scales on data collected both pre and post launch. Once this ensemble of individual perspectives is collected and organized, a cohesive and highly rigorous picture of the overall end-to-end performance of the CERES instrument's and data processing algorithms may be clearly established. This approach has resulted in unprecedented levels of accuracy for radiation budget instruments and data products with calibration stability of better than 0.2-percent and calibration traceability from ground to flight of 0.25-percent. The current work summarizes the development, philosophy and implementation of the protocol designed to rigorously quantify the quality of the data products as well as the level of agreement between the CERES TRMM, Terra and Aqua climate data records.
Document ID
20080009758
Acquisition Source
Langley Research Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Priestley, K. J.
(NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Matthews, G.
(Analytical Services and Materials, Inc. Hampton, VA, United States)
Thomas, S.
(Science Applications International Corp. Hampton, VA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
July 24, 2006
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Report/Patent Number
Paper No. A45A-06
Meeting Information
Meeting: 2006 Western Pacific Geophysics Meeting
Location: Beijing
Country: China
Start Date: July 24, 2006
End Date: July 27, 2006
Funding Number(s)
WBS: WBS 921266.04.07.07
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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