Engineering PapersSearch

Engineering topics

Harrison, E.

Publications and source records attributed to Harrison, E..

Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) archival and April 1985 results

This paper describes the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) data products being made available to the community. The Science Team used ten validation criteria to judge the acceptability of the data for archival. These criteria are listed, and uncertainty estimates based on them for four typical data products are presented. A brief description of the radiation budget for April 1985 from the combined data of ERBE and NOAA-9 concludes this paper.

Barkstrom, B.

Comparison of regional clear-sky albedos inferred from satellite observations and model computations

A comparison of model- and satellite-inferred clear sky top-of-atmosphere (TOA) albedos is presented. The clear sky albedos were inferred from GOES-2 observations for November 1978 over South America and most of North America and adjacent ocean regions. The model albedos were computed on a 1 deg X 1 deg latitude-longitude grid, allowing for variations in surface vegetation type, solar zenith angle, orography, and spectral absorption/scattering. Over the ocean areas, the observed and calculated TOA albedos agree within + or - 1 percent, while the albedos over land mostly agree within + or - 2 percent for the entire range of significant geographical variation of albedo from 13 percent over the Amazon Basin to 24 percent over mountains of western North America. Both the ocean and land agreements lie within the theoretical and observational uncertainties.

Briegleb, B. P.

ISCCP cloud algorithm intercomparison

Research related to the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) began with a pilot study initiated in late 1981 to evaluate currently available cloud analysis algorithms. Other objectives of this study are related to a test of the effects of data volume compression schemes and the design of the operational algorithms for ISCCP. The present paper summarizes the pilot study by focusing on the most fundamental step of any cloud algorithm, that of cloud detection. An outline is provided of the objectives and limitations of the pilot study, and a description is given of the criteria used to design the operational analysis algorithm. Attention is given to the pilot study data set, a cloud detection intercomparison, a cloud analysis, and ISCCP cloud algorithm design.

Rossow, W. B.