Monitoring the Global Top-of-Atmosphere Shortwave Radiation Flux with Deep Space-Based Earth Observations

The top-of-atmosphere (TOA) Earth-reflected shortwave radiation flux is a crucial component of the Earth’s radiation budget (ERB). The Earth polychromatic imaging camera onboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR/EPIC) provides a unique Earth observation perspective from the Sun–Earth Lagran...

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Main Authors: Yuchen Zhao, Huizeng Liu, Ping Zhu, Hong Qiu, Tianye Cao, Siying Chen, Yan Ma, Qingquan Li
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2025-01-01
Series:Journal of Remote Sensing
Online Access:https://spj.science.org/doi/10.34133/remotesensing.0373
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author Yuchen Zhao
Huizeng Liu
Ping Zhu
Hong Qiu
Tianye Cao
Siying Chen
Yan Ma
Qingquan Li
author_facet Yuchen Zhao
Huizeng Liu
Ping Zhu
Hong Qiu
Tianye Cao
Siying Chen
Yan Ma
Qingquan Li
author_sort Yuchen Zhao
collection DOAJ
description The top-of-atmosphere (TOA) Earth-reflected shortwave radiation flux is a crucial component of the Earth’s radiation budget (ERB). The Earth polychromatic imaging camera onboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR/EPIC) provides a unique Earth observation perspective from the Sun–Earth Lagrange point 1. Traditionally, angular distribution models (ADMs) are required to account for the radiation anisotropy. However, no ADMs are available intended for DSCOVR/EPIC, while the development and application of ADMs involved complicated procedures. With an attempt to simplify and improve the derivation of TOA shortwave flux, this study proposed a machine learning-based approach to interpret the DSCOVR/EPIC data and evaluate its application potential in monitoring the global shortwave flux. With the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) products as the benchmark, 36 neural network models were developed for each scene type and air condition to estimate the TOA shortwave flux from DSCOVR/EPIC, and a model was then developed to relate the EPIC-derived flux to global TOA shortwave flux. Results showed that the neural network models worked well in estimating the TOA shortwave flux, which produced consistent spatial distributions with CERES products across scene level, daily, and monthly scales. With the developed models, the EPIC-derived flux could account for 97% variations of global TOA shortwave flux at the daily scale, which were better than the EPIC-L2 albedo product. Overall, this study demonstrated the promising potential of deep space-based Earth observation for ERB monitoring, and the proposed method holds potentials for geostationary satellites and Moon-based Earth observations.
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publishDate 2025-01-01
publisher American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
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spelling doaj-art-578f0f2c5f3340d092ed3b505a06b6ad2025-08-20T02:37:33ZengAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)Journal of Remote Sensing2694-15892025-01-01510.34133/remotesensing.0373Monitoring the Global Top-of-Atmosphere Shortwave Radiation Flux with Deep Space-Based Earth ObservationsYuchen Zhao0Huizeng Liu1Ping Zhu2Hong Qiu3Tianye Cao4Siying Chen5Yan Ma6Qingquan Li7Institute for Advanced Study & Tiandu- Shenzhen University Deep Space Joint Laboratory & Space Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.Institute for Advanced Study & Tiandu- Shenzhen University Deep Space Joint Laboratory & Space Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.Institute for Advanced Study & Tiandu- Shenzhen University Deep Space Joint Laboratory & Space Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.National Satellite Meteorological Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China.Institute for Advanced Study & Tiandu- Shenzhen University Deep Space Joint Laboratory & Space Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.MNR Key Laboratory for Geo-Environmental Monitoring of Great Bay Area & Guangdong Key Laboratory of Urban Informatics & Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Spatial Smart Sensing and Services, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.Institute for Advanced Study & Tiandu- Shenzhen University Deep Space Joint Laboratory & Space Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.Institute for Advanced Study & Tiandu- Shenzhen University Deep Space Joint Laboratory & Space Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.The top-of-atmosphere (TOA) Earth-reflected shortwave radiation flux is a crucial component of the Earth’s radiation budget (ERB). The Earth polychromatic imaging camera onboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR/EPIC) provides a unique Earth observation perspective from the Sun–Earth Lagrange point 1. Traditionally, angular distribution models (ADMs) are required to account for the radiation anisotropy. However, no ADMs are available intended for DSCOVR/EPIC, while the development and application of ADMs involved complicated procedures. With an attempt to simplify and improve the derivation of TOA shortwave flux, this study proposed a machine learning-based approach to interpret the DSCOVR/EPIC data and evaluate its application potential in monitoring the global shortwave flux. With the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) products as the benchmark, 36 neural network models were developed for each scene type and air condition to estimate the TOA shortwave flux from DSCOVR/EPIC, and a model was then developed to relate the EPIC-derived flux to global TOA shortwave flux. Results showed that the neural network models worked well in estimating the TOA shortwave flux, which produced consistent spatial distributions with CERES products across scene level, daily, and monthly scales. With the developed models, the EPIC-derived flux could account for 97% variations of global TOA shortwave flux at the daily scale, which were better than the EPIC-L2 albedo product. Overall, this study demonstrated the promising potential of deep space-based Earth observation for ERB monitoring, and the proposed method holds potentials for geostationary satellites and Moon-based Earth observations.https://spj.science.org/doi/10.34133/remotesensing.0373
spellingShingle Yuchen Zhao
Huizeng Liu
Ping Zhu
Hong Qiu
Tianye Cao
Siying Chen
Yan Ma
Qingquan Li
Monitoring the Global Top-of-Atmosphere Shortwave Radiation Flux with Deep Space-Based Earth Observations
Journal of Remote Sensing
title Monitoring the Global Top-of-Atmosphere Shortwave Radiation Flux with Deep Space-Based Earth Observations
title_full Monitoring the Global Top-of-Atmosphere Shortwave Radiation Flux with Deep Space-Based Earth Observations
title_fullStr Monitoring the Global Top-of-Atmosphere Shortwave Radiation Flux with Deep Space-Based Earth Observations
title_full_unstemmed Monitoring the Global Top-of-Atmosphere Shortwave Radiation Flux with Deep Space-Based Earth Observations
title_short Monitoring the Global Top-of-Atmosphere Shortwave Radiation Flux with Deep Space-Based Earth Observations
title_sort monitoring the global top of atmosphere shortwave radiation flux with deep space based earth observations
url https://spj.science.org/doi/10.34133/remotesensing.0373
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