ERBE S-10 WFOV Shape Factor: Earth Flux and Albedo from Multi-Satellite System

NASA's Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) collected global radiation data using instruments on three satellites: ERBS, NOAA-9, and NOAA-10. The S-10 WFOV Shape Factor product contains inverted daily, monthly hourly, and monthly averages of shortwave and long-wave radiant fluxes at the top-of-the-atmosphere. Data collection for this product is complete and is available in the Native (NAT) format.

Use Cases

• Modeling Earth's radiation budget based on top-of-atmosphere shortwave and long-wave flux averages.
• Analyzing temporal patterns in planetary albedo based on daily and monthly averaged data.
• Validating climate models using satellite-derived radiant flux data from the ERBE multi-satellite system.
• Studying spatial radiation variations using data from wide field-of-view (WFOV) and medium field-of-view (MFOV) channels.

Strengths

• Data originates from a multi-satellite system (ERBS, NOAA-9, NOAA-10), providing multiple observational sources.
• Product contains multiple temporal aggregations: daily, monthly hourly, and monthly averages.
• Instruments were active cavity radiometers, designed for spectral flatness and high accuracy.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is stored in a Native (NAT) format (BIN, PDF, ISO, HTML), which may require specialized tools for access.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Measured by scanner and non-scanner instrument packages on the ERBS, NOAA-9, and NOAA-10 satellites.

Time Range

Data collection is complete; specific temporal coverage is not provided in the description.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:00:11.005446; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global, from horizon-to-horizon and approximately 1000 km diameter field-of-view satellite observations.