ERBE Satellite Regional Averages for Earth Radiation Budget

Global satellite data from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) provides regional averages of radiant flux and albedo on a 5-degree grid. Measurements were taken by instruments on NASA's ERBS and NOAA-9 and NOAA-10 satellites, covering latitudes between 67.5 degrees north and south. The dataset includes monthly, daily, and hourly averages processed using a numerical filter technique.

Use Cases

• Analyzing regional variations in Earth's albedo using the shortwave channel data.
• Studying temporal trends in radiant flux from the total spectral channel across daily, monthly, and hourly averages.
• Validating climate model outputs against historical satellite observations of the radiation budget.
• Investigating zonal and global scale energy imbalances using the provided averaged data products.

Strengths

• Data collection is complete, providing a finalized record from a multi-satellite system (ERBS, NOAA-9, NOAA-10).
• Offers multiple temporal aggregations including monthly, daily, and hourly averages for cross-scale analysis.
• Utilized high-accuracy active cavity radiometers across all five non-scanner channels, designed for spectral flatness.

Limitations

• Specific column names, row counts, and dataset size are not provided by any source.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date, reporting both 1990-02-28 and 2026-03-13.
• Data representation as 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit integers may require conversion for scientific units.

Provenance

Source

NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science Data Center (LARC_ASDC).

Collection Method

Satellite measurements from non-scanner, wide field-of-view (WFOV) instruments processed with a numerical filter and averaged to a 5-degree regional grid.

Time Range

Coverage period not explicitly stated, but data collection is noted as complete.

Freshness

2026-03 13 02:59:39.841055

Geography

Global coverage between 67.5 degrees north and south latitude.