The Next Step in Earth Radiation Budget Measurements

Space-based Earth Radiation Budget (ERB) measurements are ready to take their next major evolutionary step beyond the ERBE three-satellite constellation of the 1980s. This step would complete the ERBE vision by using not just three but dozens of satellites, and it would complete the GERB vision by providing global diurnal cycle. Such a large constellation would measure true diurnal cycle, without long chains of assumptions and extrapolations, allowing ERB to take its place alongside the other synoptic variables that are assimilated in weather and climate models, and bringing ERB back to a forefront research area. This constellation approach would make it possible to study ERB for rapidly evolving large-scale phenomena. It would also allow, for the first time, the measurement of the true Earth Radiation Imbalance, a crucial quantity, much in the news of late, for testing climate models and for predicting the future course of global warming. Among many side benefits, the greatest would be that all interested nations could participate. Such nations would merely need to meet the instrument functional requirements and find rides to space, and the system could thus grow with time, allowing continuously improved sampling, rapid deployment of new technologies with minimal damage to data continuity, and economies of scale. This is really the perfect ERB system for a budget-constrained decade.