Abstract
This study focuses on the estimation of shortwave and longwave radiation utilizing measured data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA’s) Terra / Aqua satellites in clear sky conditions. The net radiation is the vector sum of the shortwave and longwave radiation coming towards and going away from the Earth’s surface. The study is carried out for a tropical site Kaiga, located in Southern India for the months of March and April representative of the warm season and the months of November and December representative of the cold season in the year 2013. The validity of the net radiation values estimated from MODIS data is assessed by comparing it with simultaneous ground based measurements from the Mini Boundary Layer Masts (MBLMs). The results indicate that the net radiation values estimated by the satellite are well correlated with the ground based measurements (R2 = 0.983). On an average, for the four months of study, the mean absolute error between the satellite and ground based measurements is 35 W m-2 where as the RMSE is 50 W m-2. Once validated with ground based measurements, the satellite derived net radiation data can be used for validation of land surface energy balance predicted by atmospheric models.
Highlights
The absorption of solar radiation and emission of terrestrial radiation by the earth and constituents of the atmosphere drive the general circulation in the atmosphere
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flies on board the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA's) Terra and Aqua satellites and it acquires data in 36 spectral bands from 0.412 μm to 14.200 μm spanning the visible, infra – red and thermal infra – red wavelengths
MOD refers to the data obtained from Terra MODIS and MYD refers to the data obtained from Aqua
Summary
The absorption of solar radiation and emission of terrestrial radiation by the earth and constituents of the atmosphere drive the general circulation in the atmosphere This general circulation is largely responsible for the earth’s weather and climate. The net radiation is the vector sum of the shortwave and longwave radiation coming towards and going away from the Earth’s surface. It is an important parameter in the surface energy budget and required for climate change studies, monitoring weather, estimation of evapotranspiration and agricultural meteorology. The polar orbiting satellites on the other hand, have superior spatial resolution; their global coverage is twice a day and they are not very suitable for studies on diurnal variation. Data from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) have been used to derive the net radiation in Jiangxi Province, China
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