ERBE Satellite Radiation Budget Regional Averages

ERBE_S4G_SC_NEST5_1 contains Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) scanner data, providing nested regional averages of radiant flux and albedo. The dataset was collected by instruments on NASA's ERBS and NOAA's NOAA-9 and NOAA-10 satellites, offering global and mid-latitude coverage. Data collection is complete, and the information is stored in Hierarchical Data Format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing regional and zonal averages of shortwave, longwave, and total radiative flux.
• Studying Earth's albedo variations using scanner-derived measurements.
• Investigating the Earth's radiation budget by combining data from multiple satellite platforms (ERBS, NOAA-9, NOAA-10).
• Validating climate models with historical satellite observations of radiant flux.

Strengths

• Data originates from a multi-satellite system (ERBS, NOAA-9, NOAA-10), providing complementary global and mid-latitude coverage.
• Scanner instruments used three calibrated detectors (shortwave, longwave, total) with space views on every scan to guard against drift.
• Provides averages on regional, zonal, and global scales, facilitating large-scale climate analysis.

Limitations

• Critical metadata conflicts exist: the last updated date is reported as both 1990-02-28 and 2026-03-13.
• No column names, row counts, or dataset size information are provided by any source.
• The specific license is only described as 'other-license-specified', requiring further investigation.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Measurements from scanner instrument packages on the ERBS, NOAA-9, and NOAA-10 satellites, using thermistor detectors within a Cassegrain telescope.

Time Range

Data collection is complete, but specific start and end dates are not provided.

Freshness

2026-03-13 03:06:29.831445

Geography

Global coverage from NOAA-9 and NOAA-10, with ERBS coverage between 67.5 degrees north and south latitude.