Design and Analysis of a Next-Generation Wide Field-of-View Earth Radiation Budget Radiometer

Abstract

Climate on Earth is determined by the Earth Radiation Budget (ERB), which quantifies the incoming and outgoing radiative energy fluxes. The ERB can be monitored by non-scanning wide field-of-view radiometers, or by scanning narrow field-of-view radiometers. We propose an enhanced design for the wide field-of-view radiometer, with as key features the use of a near-spherical cavity to obtain a uniform angular sensitivity and the integration of the shuttered electrical substitution principle, eliminating long term drifts of the radiometer and improving its time response. The target absolute accuracy is 1 W/m 2 and the target stability is 0.1 W/m 2 per decade for the measurement of the total outgoing Earth’s radiation. In order to increase the spatial resolution and to separate the total outgoing radiation into reflected Solar and emitted thermal radiation, we propose the joint use of the radiometer with wide field-of-view Shortwave (400–900 nm) and Longwave (8–14 μm) cameras. This paper presents the concept and design of the novel wide field-of-view radiometer, including simulations and analyses of its expected performance. We focus on mechanical design and the measurement characteristics based on optical and thermal analyses. In combination with the cameras, we obtain an estimated accuracy of 0.44 W/m 2 .