Abstract

Total solar irradiance was observed simultaneously outside the earth’s atmosphere by three types of absolute cavity radiometers and duplicates of four of the Nimbus 6 Earth Radiation Budget (ERB) solar channels in a June 1976 Sounding Rocket Experiment. The preliminary average solar constant result from the cavity radiometers is 1367 W m⁻² with an uncertainty of less than ±0.5% in SI units. The duplicate ERB channel 3 on the rocket gave a value of 1389 W m⁻² which agreed exactly with the Nimbus 6 ERB channel 3 measurement made simultaneously with the rocket flight. Therefore, Nimbus 6 ERB solar constant values should be reduced approximately 1.6% in order to convert the values to SI units.

© 1977 Optical Society of America

Nimbus-6 earth radiation budget experiment

W. L. Smith, J. Hickey, H. B. Howell, H. Jacobowitz, D. T. Hilleary, and A. J. Drummond
Appl. Opt. 16(2) 306-318 (1977)

Solar constants and radiometric scales

B. W. Forgan
Appl. Opt. 16(6) 1628-1632 (1977)

Active cavity radiometer type IV

Richard C. Willson
Appl. Opt. 18(2) 179-188 (1979)

Solar calibration results from two earth radiation budget experiment nonscanner instruments

Michael R. Luther, Robert B. Lee, Bruce R. Barkstrom, John E. Cooper, Robert D. Cess, and Charles H. Duncan
Appl. Opt. 25(4) 540-545 (1986)

Photometric calibration of the EUV spectroheliometer on ATM

E. M. Reeves, J. G. Timothy, M. C. E. Huber, and G. L. Withbroe
Appl. Opt. 16(4) 849-857 (1977)