Evaluation of the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) shortwave channel's stability using in-flight calibration sources

The Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) radiometers were designed to make absolute measurements of the incoming solar, earth-reflected solar, and earth-emitted fluxes for investigations of the earth's climate system. Thermistor bolometers were the sensors used for the ERBE scanning radiometric package. Each thermistor bolometer package consisted of three narrow field of view broadband radiometric channels measuring shortwave, longwave, and total (0.2 micron to 50 microns) radiation. The in-flight calibration facilities include Mirror Attenuator Mosaics, shortwave internal calibration source, and internal blackbody sources to monitor the long-term responsivity of the radiometers. This paper describes the in-flight calibration facilities, the calibration data reduction techniques, and the results from the in-flight shortwave channel calibrations. The results indicate that the ERBE shortwave detectors were stable to within +/- 1 percent for up to five years of flight operation.