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Surface radiation budget data are presented for the midseasonal months of July and October of 1983 and January and April of 1984. These data allow examination for the first time of geographical and seasonal variations of the entire surface radiation budget from pole to pole. The latest flux estimation techniques have been used along with data from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) and the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE). Regional, zonal, and hemispheric distributions of the downward and net components of both shortwave and longwave fluxes and of the net total surface fluxes are determined. Seasonal flux variation per region, expressed as flux range, is illustrated for these components also. The estimated fluxes appear to be accurate to about 16 W m −2 on a global average, based on sensitivity analyses and comparisons with ground data. An analysis of flux errors showed that most of the error was attributable to errors in input data.
Darnell et al. (Tue,) studied this question.