Earth ID: 3105

Instantaneous Incoming Solar Flux (WMS)

Visualizations by Horace Mitchell Released on February 1, 2005

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 incoming solar radiation within view of CERES during 29 orbits on June 20 and 21 of 2003. Because this is incoming solar flux, its magnitude only depends on the position of the sun, and, because the orbit is synchronized with the sun, the orbit crosses the equator in the daylight at about 1:30 PM local time on every orbit. This data is not actually measured from CERES, but is calculated to compare with the outgoing radiation that CERES does measure.

This animation shows incoming solar flux corresponding to 29 orbits (2 days) of CERES measurements, from June 20-21, 2003. This data is calculated using data from SORCE for the flux magnitude at the Earths orbit, coupled with solar incidence angles based on CERES measurement locations and times.

This product is available through our Web Map Service.

For More Information

http://asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/ceres/ASDceres.html

Visualization Credits

Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator
Eric Sokolowsky (GST): Animator
Bruce A. Wielicki (NASA/LaRC): Scientist

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3105

Mission:
Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE)

Data Used:

SORCE/TIM

2003/06/20-2003/06/21

view all stories where this data set is used

Aqua/CERES/Incoming Solar Radiation

2003/06/20-2003/06/21

Data from SORCE for the flux magnitude at the Earth's orbit, coupled with solar incidence angles based on CERES measurement locations and times

view all stories where this data set is used

Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of this series:
WMS

Keywords:
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Radiation >> Incoming Solar Radiation
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Radiation >> Solar Irradiance
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Sun-earth Interactions >> Solar Activity >> Solar Irradiance
SVS >> CERES
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0