Satellite Meteorology

Abstract

meteorology.” The instrument was designed to measure the most basic meteorological parameter: the balance between incoming solar radiation to the atmosphere and the radiation exiting the atmosphere as a result of reflection and emission processes. The spatial distribution of the radiation imbalances between incoming and outgoing radiation, the net radiation, is the primary driving force of atmospheric circulation. The solar input had already been measured from ground-based and balloon-borne platforms. Suomi’s experiment was the first to measure the energy loss to space. Suom i ’s r a d iome t e r (or, more c or re c t l y, “bolometer”—an extremely sensitive device that can be used to measure solar radiation) consisted of sensors varying in their sensitivities to solar (short wavelength) and terrestrial (long wavelength) radiation—one type equally sensitive to both, another more sensitive to terrestrial radiation, and a third type more sensitive to solar radiation. Suomi was then able to differentiate between the energy leaving the Earth’s atmosphere due to reflected sunlight and that thermally emitted by the Earth and its atmosphere. He correlated these findings to cloud and weather