Relationships between Net Radiation at the Surface and the Top of the Atmosphere Derived from a General Circulation Model

The relationships between the net radiation at the surface and the top of the atmosphere in the UCLA general circulation model are investigated. These suggest that it may be possible to formulate statistical models from limited observations relating satellite derived net radiation at the top of the atmosphere to net radiation at the earth's surface. However, the results suggest it may not be possible to develop comparable statistical models to infer net infrared radiation at the surface or the vertically integrated radiative heating of an atmospheric column.