Bilan radiatif, nébulosité et climat : le programme ScaRaB (Radiative budget, cloudiness and climate : ScaRaB)

摘要

Abstract. - We recall the fundamental role of the Earth radiation budget (ERB) in climat, emphasizing the importance of cloud-radiation interactions and feedback for assessing climate sensitivity to perturbations, in particular to the increasing abundance of greenhouse gases. We review the problems of methodology for determination of ERB components from space observations, with a survey of the different American missions (from Nimbus to ERBE to CERES), and of the initiation of the ScaRaB program. We describe the ScaRaB instrument, its ground and onboard calibration systems, and the algorithms used in ground datât processing. We provide preliminary results from Flight Model 1 data, and conclude with a presentation of the perspectives for continuation of the program.