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| Earth Radiation Budget Satellite | |
|---|---|
| Name | Earth Radiation Budget Satellite |
| Mission type | Earth observation |
| Operator | NASA / NOAA |
| Manufacturer | Jet Propulsion Laboratory / Hughes Aircraft Company |
| Launch rocket | Delta II |
| Launch site | Vandenberg Air Force Base |
| Orbit reference | Geocentric orbit |
| Orbit regime | Sun-synchronous orbit |
| Instruments | NISTAR, ERBE scanner and nonscanner sensors |
| Programme | Earth Radiation Budget |
Earth Radiation Budget Satellite The Earth Radiation Budget Satellite was a series of spacecraft and associated instrument suites developed to quantify the balance between incoming solar irradiance and outgoing terrestrial radiation. The program produced global measurements that informed climate science, atmospheric chemistry, and policy discussions involving institutions such as Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and United States Department of Energy. Data from the program were used alongside observations from missions like Nimbus 7, Landsat, and Terra to improve models at organizations including National Aeronautics and Space Administration centers and international agencies.
The program aimed to measure top-of-atmosphere reflected shortwave and outgoing longwave radiation to determine the Earth's radiative forcing and energy imbalance. Instrumentation strategies built on heritage from ERBE and informed later missions such as CERES on Terra and Aqua. Collaborations involved contractors and research institutions like California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, NOAA Satellite and Information Service, and European Space Agency. The project intersected with policy dialogues at United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations and scientific assessments by American Geophysical Union and Royal Society panels.
Spacecraft bus and payload design drew on engineering practices from Jet Propulsion Laboratory projects and avionics innovations used on Voyager 1 and Hubble Space Telescope missions. Key instruments included broadband radiometers, scanning radiometers, and cavity radiometers conceptually similar to CERES and ERBE hardware. Sensor subsystems employed detectors and calibration chains developed with input from National Institute of Standards and Technology and tested at facilities associated with Ames Research Center and Langley Research Center. Pointing and attitude control systems referenced designs from Global Positioning System flight hardware and stabilization techniques used on GOES satellites. Thermal control and materials selection benefited from lessons learned on International Space Station experiments and Space Shuttle payloads.
Operations were coordinated by mission control centers patterned after Goddard Space Flight Center practices and involved international ground-station networks such as those run by European Space Operations Centre and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Routine calibration maneuvers used celestial references like Moon observations and cross-calibration with contemporaneous missions including NOAA-14, ERS-2, and Meteosat. Mission operations incorporated data latency management and archiving workflows following standards set by National Archives and Records Administration and science data centers like Oak Ridge National Laboratory and National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Processed products included top-of-atmosphere flux maps, diurnal cycle composites, and angular distribution models used to convert radiance to flux. Downstream consumers included climate model centers such as National Center for Atmospheric Research, Met Office Hadley Centre, and Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, which assimilated radiative fluxes into reanalysis projects like ERA-Interim and NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis. Calibration and validation efforts engaged field campaigns sponsored by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and project teams from University of Colorado Boulder. Data formats followed community standards promoted by Committee on Earth Observation Satellites and were distributed via archives such as Langley DAAC.
Results quantified trends in planetary albedo, seasonal cycles, and decadal changes in outgoing longwave radiation, influencing assessments by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and studies published in journals like Nature, Science, and Journal of Geophysical Research. Findings constrained radiative forcing estimates from greenhouse gases reported by World Meteorological Organization and informed attribution studies connected to extreme events investigated by National Academy of Sciences. Cross-disciplinary impacts reached oceanography through collaborations with NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and cryosphere studies involving National Snow and Ice Data Center and Scott Polar Research Institute.
Launch campaigns followed integrated reviews similar to those used for Delta II and Atlas V programs, with schedule coordination drawing on practices from NASA Launch Services Program and range operations at Vandenberg Air Force Base and Kennedy Space Center. Timeline milestones aligned with international initiatives such as the Global Climate Observing System implementation plan and overlapped operationally with satellites like UARS and Suomi NPP. End-of-mission decommissioning procedures referenced guidelines from Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee and asset retirement policies adopted by NASA and NOAA.
The program’s heritage informed successor efforts including Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System and contributed to mission concepts evaluated by European Space Agency and the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites. Legacy datasets continue to support reanalysis and climate record construction at centers like National Climatic Data Center and academic groups at California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The program’s influence is evident in international partnerships modeled after collaborations between NASA and NOAA and in educational initiatives at institutions such as University of California, Berkeley and Harvard University.