European Component of GEWEX Surface Radiation Budget (ESRB)

The Earth's Surface Radiation Budget (SRB) is the key quantity that determines global climate and climate change from increased greenhouse gases. The SRB is also important to life and to the use of clean renewable solar energy to improve the quality of the environment. Measurements of the radiation budget at the top-of-the-atmosphere (TOA) are routinely made by satellites (e.g., ERBE). However, the SRB needs to be computed indirectly from TOA measurements using radiation transfer models. To this end the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) has supported projects like the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) SRB which aims to quantify the global surface radiation budget at high resolution.

ESRB is the European component of this project. Its tasks are to first evaluate the NASA-Langley 1-degree global climatological data used to derive the SRB and TOARB from well tested radiation transfer models, and secondly to validate the SRB for Europe at 1-degree resolution. ESRB will provide estimates of the global SRB and TOARB at 1-degree resolution in addition to the 1-degree resolution SRB and TOARB validated for Europe and the Mediterranean Basin. Validation will be achieved through ground-based measurements (BSRN) and high resolution satellite measurements (METEOSAT) collocated with the ground stations.

The new validated 1-degree SRB data base for Europe will provide invaluable input to a host of scientific and technological applications. These include: regional surface climatology; ocean modelling and energetics; polar climatology; General circulation model (GCM) validation; plant growth models; forest ecosystems and fires; regional water resources; photovoltaic arrays; and solar energy cookers and refrigeration.