The Relationship between the Planetary and Surface Net Radiation

Abstract

In this study, an attempt has been made to derive the daily net radiation at the top of the atmosphere using the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) visible (0.55?0.75 ?m) and IR window (10.5?12.5 ?m) observations and to correlate it with the net radiation at the surface. The NOAA/NESDIS agency arranged for the collection of GOES-E satellite data for a two year period (1981?82) at selected sites in Canada, where surface net radiation is observed routinely. The derived daily average net radiation at the top of the atmosphere was found to be highly correlated to the daily average net radiation at the surface. Preliminary tests of a statistical approach to estimate the surface daily average net radiation from satellite observations of planetary daily average net radiation yielded encouraging results. It was also demonstrated that when the averaging period for the net radiation was increased from one to ten days, the standard error of estimate was reduced from 20 to 7 W m?2.