Modeling of Downward Surface Longwave Flux Density for Global Change Applications and Comparison with Pyrgeometer Measurements

Abstract

The success of satellite monitoring of global climate change depends on the ability to validate satellite inference methods against accurate ?ground truth.? Under a recent World Meteorological Organization?World Climate Research Program activity a baseline surface radiation network is being established for long-term monitoring of surface radiation balance (SPB) components. At present, it is not possible to measure all of the SRB components at known accuracies. In this paper, selected longwave surface irradiance measurements are tested against high-resolution radiative transfer computations. It is shown that the differences between the modeled IR flux density using a line-by-line code and pyrgeometer measurements are within the required accuracy for ground observations.