Satellite Outgoing Longwave Radiation with Equatorial Crossing Time Bias Correction

1974 through 1999 data provides daily, pentad (5-day), and monthly global Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) measurements. The dataset corrects biases from satellite orbital drift and transitions between morning and afternoon satellites, using the NCEP/NOAA OLR archive. It was processed by the SCIOPS organization.

Use Cases

• Analyze long-term trends in OLR values to study climate change impacts on Earth's energy balance.
• Compare daily, pentad, and monthly OLR time series to investigate seasonal and interannual variability.
• Validate climate model simulations of top-of-atmosphere radiation using the bias-corrected satellite record.
• Study the impact of satellite orbital drift correction on derived climate indices from the OLR data.

Strengths

• Covers a 26-year time series from 1974 to 1999.
• Provides data at daily, 5-day (pentad), and monthly temporal resolutions.
• Applies specific corrections for equatorial crossing time biases from orbital drift and satellite transitions.

Limitations

• Data ends in 1999, making it temporally stale for contemporary climate analysis.
• The raw description does not specify spatial resolution or grid details.
• No information is provided on the volume of data points or file sizes.

Provenance

Source

NCEP/NOAA OLR archive, processed by SCIOPS.

Collection Method

Bias estimation and removal from twice-daily 2.5-degree satellite data.

Time Range

1974-01-01 to 1999-12-31

Freshness

Final update was on 1999-12-31.

Geography

Global