THE CEOS DATABASE : Missions, Instruments and Measurements
CEOS EO HANDBOOK – MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENTS
Measurements > Atmosphere >
Radiation budget >
Upward long-wave irradiance at TOA


Measurement Definition*: Flux of the terrestrial radiation in the range 4-200 µm (thermal emission) moving to space through the top of the atmosphere - Physical unit [ W/m2 ], Accuracy unit [ W/m2 ]

Thematic Links
InstrumentStatus/
Accuracy
Instrument DescriptionMeasurement TechnologyTimeline
Advanced MI
Advanced Meteorological Imager
Operational
Continuous monitoring capability for the near real-time generation of high-resolution meteorological products and long-term change analysis of sea surface temperature and cloud coverage.Multi-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
AVHRR/3
Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer/3
Operational
Measurements of land and sea surface temperature, cloud cover, snow and ice cover, soil moisture and vegetation indices. Data also used for volcanic eruption monitoring.Multi-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
CERES
Cloud and the Earth's Radiant Energy System
Operational
Long term measurement of the Earth's radiation budget and atmospheric radiation from the top of the atmosphere to the surface; provision of an accurate and self-consistent cloud and radiation database.n/a
ERM-1
Earth Radiation Measurement
Operational
Measures Earth radiation gains and losses on regional, zonal and global scales.n/a
ERM-2
Improved Earth Radiation Measurement
Operational
Measures Earth radiation gains and losses on regional, zonal and global scales.n/a
GERB
Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget
Operational
Measures long and short wave radiation emitted and reflected from the Earth's surface, clouds and top of atmosphere. Full Earth disk, all channels in 5 minutes.n/a
GOME-2
Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment - 2
Operational
Measurement of total column amounts and stratospheric and tropospheric profiles of ozone. Also amounts of H20, NO2, OClO, BrO, SO2 and HCHO.n/a
HIRS/4
High Resolution Infra-red Sounder/4
Operational
Atmospheric temperature profiles and data on cloud parameters, humidity soundings, water vapour, total ozone content, and surface temperatures. Same as HIRS/3, with 10 km IFOV.n/a
IASI
Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer
Operational
Measures tropospheric moisture and temperature, column integrated contents of ozone, carbon monoxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other minor gases which affect tropospheric chemistry. Also measures sea surface and land temperature.n/a
Imager
Imager
Operational
Measures cloud cover, atmospheric radiance, winds, atmospheric stability, rainfall estimates. Used to provide severe storm warnings/ monitoring day and night (type, amount, storm features).Multi-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
IRAS
InfraRed Atmospheric Sounder
Operational
Atmospheric sounding for weather forecasting.n/a
MSU-MR
Low-resolution multispectral scanning imager-radiometer
Operational
Parameters of clouds, snow, ice and land cover, vegetation, surface temperature, fire detection.Multi-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
SBUV/2
Solar Backscattter Ultra-Violet Instrument/2
Operational
Data on trace gases including vertical profile ozone, and solar irradiance and total ozone concentration measurements.n/a
SIM-2
Solar Irradiation Monitor-2
Operational
Solar irradiance monitoring.n/a
CWFMS
Canadian Wildland Fire Monitoring Sensor
Being developed
Measurements are: Fire Radiative Power (FRP), hotspot locations, rate of spread, burned area mapping. Data products generated: 1) Fire maps, showing location, extent, and timing of forest fire events; 2) Fire characteristics, such as fire line intensity, rate of spread and fuel consumption; 3) Plume dynamics through smoke transport maps and plume heights; 4) Mass of carbon released into atmosphere.Multi-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
TIRS (PREFIRE)
Thermal Infrared Spectrometer
Being developed
Pushbroom spectroradiometric imagers in highly inclined orbits to provide spectral fluxes, column-water vapor, surface emissivity and broadband radiances over majority of thermal wavelengths.n/a
BBR (EarthCARE)
BroadBand Radiometer (EarthCARE)
Approved
Top of the atmosphere radiances and radiative flux.n/a
Advanced MSU-MR
Advanced Multispectral scanning imager-radiometer
Proposed
Parameters of clouds, snow, ice and land cover, vegetation, surface temperature, fire detection.Multi-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
* Description adapted from WMO.
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