Design and Analysis of a Next-Generation Wide Field-of-View Earth Radiation Budget Radiometer

Climate on Earth is determined by the Earth Radiation Budget (ERB), which quantifies the incoming and outgoing radiative energy fluxes. The ERB can be monitored by non-scanning wide field-of-view radiometers, or by scanning narrow field-of-view radiometers. We propose an enhanced design for the wide field-of-view radiometer, with as key features the use of a near-spherical cavity to obtain a uniform angular sensitivity and the integration of the shuttered electrical substitution principle, eliminating long term drifts of the radiometer and improving its time response. The target absolute accuracy is 1 W/m 2 and the target stability is 0.1 W/m 2 per decade for the measurement of the total outgoing Earth’s radiation. In order to increase the spatial resolution and to separate the total outgoing radiation into reflected Solar and emitted thermal radiation, we propose the joint use of the radiometer with wide field-of-view Shortwave (400–900 nm) and Longwave (8–14 μm) cameras. This paper presents the concept and design of the novel wide field-of-view radiometer, including simulations and analyses of its expected performance. We focus on mechanical design and the measurement characteristics based on optical and thermal analyses. In combination with the cameras, we obtain an estimated accuracy of 0.44 W/m 2 .

[1]  Claud M. Pittman,et al.  Configuration Factors for Exchange of Radiant Energy Between Axisymmetrical Sections of Cylinders, Cones, and Hemispheres and Their Bases , 1961 .

[2]  Richard C. Willson.  Active cavity radiometer type IV , 1980 .

[3]  R. Pandey,et al.  In situ studies of electron density during equatorial spread-F , 1982 .

[4]  Bruce R. Barkstrom,et al.  The Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE). , 1984 .

[5]  D Crommelynck,et al.  Astronomy and Solar Physics , 1984, Science.

[6]  Mohammad H. Naraghi,et al.  Radiation configuration factors from axisymmetric bodies to plane surfaces , 1988 .

[7]  B. Barkstrom,et al.  Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES): An Earth Observing System Experiment , 1996 .

[8]  Steven Dewitte,et al.  Metrology of total solar irradiance monitoring , 1999 .

[9]  Robert Benjamin Lee,et al.  Contribution of the Solar Constant (SOLCON) program to the long‐term total solar irradiance observations , 2001 .

[10]  Bruce A. Wielicki,et al.  Satellite Instrument Calibration for Measuring Global Climate Change: Report of a Workshop , 2004 .

[11]  Greg Kopp,et al.  The Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM): Instrument Design , 2005 .

[12]  David R. Doelling,et al.  Angular Distribution Models for Top-of-Atmosphere Radiative Flux Estimation from the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System Instrument on the Terra Satellite. Part II: Validation , 2005 .

[13]  Nigel P. Fox,et al.  Common black coatings – reflectance and ageing characteristics in the 0.32–14.3 μm wavelength range , 2007 .

[14]  S. Dewitte,et al.  The Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget Edition 1 data processing algorithms , 2008 .

[15]  Roger W. Pryor,et al.  Multiphysics Modeling Using COMSOL®: A First Principles Approach , 2009 .

[16]  David R. Doelling,et al.  Toward Optimal Closure of the Earth's Top-of-Atmosphere Radiation Budget , 2009 .

[17]  Steven Dewitte,et al.  Total solar irradiance absolute level from DIARAD/SOVIM on the International Space Station , 2010 .

[18]  Makiko Sato,et al.  Earth's energy imbalance and implications , 2011, 1105.1140.

[19]  Alexandra E. Curtin,et al.  Decrease in reflectance of vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes after oxygen plasma treatment , 2014 .

[20]  Yong Shim Yoo,et al.  A small-size transfer blackbody cavity for calibration of infrared ear thermometers. , 2014, Physiological measurement.

[21]  Abdanour Irbah,et al.  The Sun-earth Imbalance radiometer for a direct measurement of the net heating of the earth , 2015 .

[22]  Lijing Cheng,et al.  Insights into Earth’s Energy Imbalance from Multiple Sources , 2016 .

[23]  Steven Dewitte,et al.  THE TOTAL SOLAR IRRADIANCE CLIMATE DATA RECORD , 2016 .

[24]  Norman G. Loeb,et al.  Improving estimates of Earth's energy imbalance , 2016 .

[25]  James Hansen,et al.  An imperative to monitor Earth's energy imbalance , 2016 .

[26]  van R Randy Eck,et al.  Surface to surface radiation benchmarks , 2016 .

[27]  C. Monte,et al.  High-Accuracy Emissivity Data on the Coatings Nextel 811-21, Herberts 1534, Aeroglaze Z306 and Acktar Fractal Black , 2017 .

[28]  Fei Wang,et al.  Identifying the Lambertian Property of Ground Surfaces in the Thermal Infrared Region via Field Experiments , 2017, Remote. Sens..

[29]  Matthew D. Palmer,et al.  Reconciling Estimates of Ocean Heating and Earth’s Radiation Budget , 2017, Current Climate Change Reports.

[30]  Steven Dewitte,et al.  Measurement of the Earth Radiation Budget at the Top of the Atmosphere - A Review , 2017, Remote. Sens..

[31]  G. Louis Smith,et al.  On the Lessons Learned From the Operations of the ERBE Nonscanner Instrument in Space and the Production of the Nonscanner TOA Radiation Budget Data Set , 2018, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[32]  Allan W. Smith,et al.  RAVAN: CubeSat Demonstration for Multi-Point Earth Radiation Budget Measurements , 2019, Remote. Sens..

[33]  Jan Cornelis,et al.  Decadal Changes of the Reflected Solar Radiation and the Earth Energy Imbalance , 2019, Remote. Sens..