Optimizing the Sampling Strategy for Future Libera Earth Radiation Budget Satellite Observations Journal Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Abstract; The Earth’s Radiation Budget (ERB) is a fundamental property of Earth’s climate system. The ERB is composed of incoming solar irradiance, outgoing reflected solar irradiance, and emitted terrestrial irradiance. Libera, the first NASA Earth Venture Continuity Mission, will measure the reflected solar irradiance and emitted terrestrial irradiance components of ERB with an overarching goal of providing continuity to the ERB climate data currently acquired from the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) mission. Libera will also include a new “split-shortwave” measurement to quantify the partitioning of the reflected solar irradiance into visible (0.3-0.7 μm) and near-infrared (0.7-5.0 μm) subcomponents. To quantify the contribution of these sub-components to ERB, it is necessary to convert measured radiance into the energy budget-relevant irradiance by applying Angular Distribution Models (ADMs). To create ADMs for each scene type, a large number of observations spanning a wide range of solarviewing geometry combinations is required for statistical sufficiency. The primary Libera operational modes are cross-track scanning, which enables consistent global coverage of outgoing radiance observations, and rotational azimuth plane scanning (RAPS), which accelerates the rate of data collection across the range of solar-viewing geometry combinations. This analysis investigates how the cadence of RAPS mode operations and the azimuthal scan rate impact the observed scene and solar-viewing geometry space over time. The analysis presented in this paper describes why a slower RAPS azimuthal scan rate and a more frequent RAPS cadence will provide the best observational coverage during the first year of the Libera mission.

publication date

  • July 1, 2025

Date in CU Experts

  • June 16, 2026 6:14 AM

Full Author List

  • Heever MVD; Gristey J; Pilewskie P

author count

  • 3

Other Profiles

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 1755-1307

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1755-1315

Additional Document Info

start page

  • 012027

end page

  • 012027

volume

  • 1522

issue

  • 1