The geostationary earth radiation budget experiment on MSG-1 and its potential applications

The Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (GERB) is in development for launch on the first Meteosat Second Generation Satellite (MSG1) and is described here with its main characteristics. GERB is designed to determine top of the atmosphere reflected Solar and Earth emitted fluxes, sampled every five minutes with a nadir foot print of about 50x50 km(2). The measured radiances will be translated into fluxes with improved spatial resolution based on the information extracted from the SEVIRI1 instrument also flying on MSG The applications of GERB data will be multiple. They will provide the behaviour of the real diurnal cycle radiation fields, and thus enable quantification of the cloud diurnal cycle. Together with the SEVIRI information, GERB will allow unique new insight for atmospheric energy budget research. (C) 1999 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.