Clouds and The Earth's Radiant Energy System

Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) is on-going NASA climatological experiment from Earth orbit. The CERES are scientific satellite instruments, part of the NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS), designed to measure both solar-reflected and Earth-emitted radiation from the top of the atmosphere (TOA) to the Earth's surface. Cloud properties are determined using simultaneous measurements by other EOS instruments such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Results from the CERES and other NASA missions, such as the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE), will lead to a better understanding of the role of clouds and the energy cycle in global climate change.

This is longwave flux radiation at the top-of-atmosphere from Jan 26-27, 2012. Heat energy radiated from Earth (in watts per square meter) is shown in shades of yellow, red, blue and white. The brightest-yellow areas are the hottest and are emitting the most energy out to space, while the dark blue areas and the bright white clouds are much colder, emitting the least energy. CERES Top-of-Atmophere (TOA) shortwave flux radiation shows energy received from the sun on Jan 26 and 27, 2012.


Read more about Clouds And The Earth's Radiant Energy System:  Scientific Goals, CERES Instruments, Operating Modes

Famous quotes containing the words clouds, earth, radiant, energy and/or system:

    Shall gods be said to thump the clouds
    When clouds are cursed by thunder,
    Be said to weep when weather howls?
    Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)

    Now, again, poetry
    violent, arcane, common,
    hewn of the commonest living substance
    into archway, portal, frame
    I grasp for you, your bloodstained splinters, your
    ancient and stubborn poise
    Mas the earth trembles—
    burning out from the grain
    Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)

    The local is a shabby thing. There’s nothing worse than bringing us back down to our own little corner, our own territory, the radiant promiscuity of the face to face. A culture which has taken the risk of the universal, must perish by the universal.
    Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)

    The persons who constitute the natural aristocracy, are not found in the actual aristocracy, or, only on its edge; as the chemical energy of the spectrum is found to be greatest just outside of the spectrum.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    I candidly confess that I have ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting addition which could ever be made to our system of States. The control which, with Florida, this island would give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and the countries and isthmus bordering on it, as well as all those whose waters flow into it, would fill up the measure of our political well-being.
    Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)