BBR and ACM-RT inputs for figures in ACMB-DF documenting paper (Barker et al., 2024).

For the Earth Cloud, Aerosol, Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) satellite mission there are a number of algorithms used to process the observations.   One of these algorithms, called ACMB-DF, is designed to perform continuous radiative closure assessment of EarthCARE observations. This is done using radiance and flux measurements from the Broad-Band Radiometer (BBR) and forward solar and thermal radiative transfer calculations applied to retrieved geophysical properties.  The ACMB-DF algorithm is documented in an Atmospheric Measurements and Techniques (AMT) article. 

To illustrate the methodology used for ACMB-DF, detailed calculations were performed for the “Hawaii” scene.  These include detailed 3D Monte Carlo calculations of the BBR and Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) radiances applied to select sections of the Hawaii test scene.  These where then used in the chain of EarthCARE retrievals to produce geophysical retrievals used as input for the ACM-RT processor to compute radiative quantities needed for closure assessment and as input to generate BBR radiances and fluxes.

The relevant publication for these calculations is:

Barker, H. W., J. N. S. Cole, N. Villefranque, Z. Qu, A. Velazquez-Blazquez, C. Domenech, S. L. Mason, and R. J. Hogan : Radiative Closure Assessment of Retrieved Cloud and Aerosol Properties for the EarthCARE Mission: The ACMB-DF Product. Submitted to AMT, May 2024.