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Outgoing Longwave Flux Compared to Clouds (WMS)

The Earth's climate is determined by energy transfer from the sun to the Earth's land, oceans, and atmosphere. As the Earth rotates, the sun lights up only part of the Earth at a time, and some of that incoming solar energy is reflected and some is absorbed, depending on type of area it lights. The amount of reflection and absorption is critical to the climate. An instrument named CERES orbits the Earth every 99 minutes and measures the reflected solar energy. This animation shows the outgoing thermal radiation measured by CERES during 29 orbits on June 20 and 21 of 2003 over global infrared cloud images. Thermal radiation is longwave radiation and depends on the temperature of the earth, with the most intense radiation coming from the warmest regions and the least from cold clouds in the atmosphere. Although cold clouds and the cold Antarctic night regions can be seen in this data, the Earth radiates pretty uniformly in the longwave bands because the atmosphere distributes the heat of the sun to the whole planet.

This animation shows 29 orbits (2 days) of outgoing longwave radiation, form June 20-21, 2003.  The measurements are superimposed over a global infrared cloud cover composite from the same period.    This animation shows 29 orbits (2 days) of outgoing longwave radiation, form June 20-21, 2003. The measurements are superimposed over a global infrared cloud cover composite from the same period.
Duration: 29.0 seconds
Available formats:
  640x320 (29.97 fps) MPEG-1   5 MB
  320x160     PNG           70 KB
  160x80       PNG           20 KB
  80x40         PNG           6 KB
  1024x512   Frames
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This is the legend for the outgoing longwave radiation, indicating the magnitudes of the thermal energy flux.
   This is the legend for the outgoing longwave radiation, indicating the magnitudes of the thermal energy flux.

Available formats:
  320 x 90           PNG   1 KB

Animation Number:3176
Animators:Horace Mitchell (SVS) (Lead)
 Eric Sokolowsky (SVS)
Completed:2005-06-21
Scientist:Bruce A. Wielicki (NASA/LaRC)
Instruments:GOES-9/Imager
 Aqua/CERES
 GOES-12/Imager
 GOES-10/Imager
 Meteosat-7/VISSR
Data sets:Cloud Cover
 Outgoing Longwave Flux
Data Collected:2003/06/20-2003/06/22
Series:WMS
Keywords:
GCMD >> EARTH SCIENCE >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Radiation >> Outgoing Longwave Radiation
GCMD >> EARTH SCIENCE >> Atmosphere >> Clouds >> Cloud Top Temperature
GCMD >> EARTH SCIENCE >> Oceans >> Ocean Heat Budget >> Longwave Radiation
More Information on this topic available at:
http://asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/ceres/ASDceres.html
View Animation in Google Earth Google Earth KML file is available here.
DEPC Metadata is available here.
 
 
Please give credit for this item to
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Scientific Visualization Studio


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