Description
The data set contains 3-hourly global fields of six longwave (LW) surface andTop of Atmosphere (TOA) radiative parameters, in addition to a day/night flag,derived with the Longwave algorithm of the NASA World Climate ResearchProgramme/Global Energy and Water-Cycle Experiment (WCRP/GEWEX) SurfaceRadiation Budget (SRB) Project.There are a total of seven parameters in these files as follows:1. Day/Night flag (daynite; 1=Day, 0=Night)2. TOA Upward Clear-Sky Flux/Clear-sky Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) (clr_toa_up)3. Surface Clear-sky Upward Longwave Flux (clr_sfc_up)4. Surface Clear-sky Downward Longwave Flux (clr_sfc_down)5. TOA All-Sky Upward Longwave Flux/OLR (toa_up)6. Surface All-Sky Upward Longwave Flux (sfc_up)7. Surface All-Sky Downward Longwave Flux (sfc_down)These parameters were derived originally on a 3-hourly temporal resolution(i.e., a global instantaneous gridded field every 3 hours), at UT hours 00, 03,06, 09, 12, 15, 18, and 21 for every day of the month. The current version ofthe data set is Release 3.1.The GEWEX LW algorithm uses the Fu et al. (1997) thermal infrared radiativetransfer code requiring atmospheric profile information, cloud, and surfaceproperties. The sources for these inputs are briefly described below. Adetailed description of the algorithm is currently being prepared forpublication.