Workshop on Continuity of Earth Radiation Budget (CERB) Observations: Post-CERES Requirements

July 13-14, 2010, at NCDC, Asheville, North Carolina

Workshop Organizer

John Bates
John.J.Bates at noaa.gov

Motivation

The Earth-atmosphere system equilibrium temperature is determined by the balance between the incoming solar radiation, the amount of that incoming radiation reflected back to space by the Earth's surface and clouds, and the longwave Earth-emitted radiation that is largely regulated by clouds and greenhouse gases. Accurate observations of the Earth's radiation are essential to determine the causes of climate variability and change.

A new era in monitoring the Earth radiation budget began in 2000 with the launch of CERES instruments on the TERRA spacecraft which also included the MODIS instrument. As noted by the NRC's decadal study, 'the CERES project has demonstrated the capability of obtaining highly accurate radiative fluxes when the broadband radiances obtained with the radiometer are interpreted through scene identification achieved through the collocation of multispectral imagery data'. To ensure continuity of these critical climate records, a CERES FM-5 instrument will fly on the NPP spacecraft and a CERES FM-6 instrument will fly on the first NOAA-NASA Joint Polar Satellite System JPSS spacecraft (now J1; formerly NPOESS C1).

The CERES FM-6 instrument on the first JPSS spacecraft will be the last flight of the CERES instrument series. To begin the procurement of the next generation of broadband Earth radiation instruments, NOAA needs to revisit the purposes of making these measurements to ensure community needs for accuracy and coverage are met.

Scope

Following the recommendation of the NRC Decadal Study, NOAA is planning for the Continuity of Earth Radiation Budget (CERB) observations and seeks community input to update requirements in order to begin planning the next generation of instruments. NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) will be hosting a 1 ½ day meeting July 13 and ending noon July 14 in Asheville, NC, to kick off this process.

Expected Outcomes

The Workshop will seek to
  1. Identify the purposes and current uses of Earth radiation budget observations,
  2. Document the current status of research and applications of Earth radiation budget, and
  3. Identify observing system requirements for the continuity of the Earth radiation budget climate data record.
We seek input from instrument scientists, observationalists, and the modeling community to ensure wide community input.

Notes and Report

Workshop Notes
Workshop Report

Additional Information

Achieving Satellite Instrument Calibration for Climate Change (ASIC³) (3.6 MB)
NPOESS Integrated Operational Requirements Document (2.0 MB)
Satellite Instrument Calibration for Measuring Global Climate Change (3.8 MB)

If you plan to attend the workshop, please contact anne.markel at noaa.gov or xuepeng.zhao at noaa.gov. We recognize that not all stakeholders will be able participate in the Workshop in person. As an alternate way of contributing, please send a completed Questionnaire to CERB.NCDC at noaa.gov. This will ensure the widest possible community participation in this effort.

For more information regarding the scientific content of the Workshop, you can contact John Bates (john.j.bates at noaa.gov) or Xuepeng (Tom) Zhao (xuepeng.zhao at noaa.gov). For logistical information, please contact Anne Markel (anne.markel at noaa.gov).