Abstract

The development optical systems capable of determining the absolute, spectrally resolved, infrared radiance emitted from the Earth to Space to an accuracy of 0.1 K from Earth orbit are reviewed in the context of a national climate research strategy. High accuracy climate benchmark observations constitute a primary objective of the NASA CLARREO satellite mission outlined in the NRC Earth Sciences Decadal Survey released in 2007. In addition to the objective of high accuracy time series of global climate change, the CLARREO observations provide an important new approach to test and systematically improve climate forecast models by directly detecting the feedback of water vapor, clouds, and temperature forced by the release of carbon dioxide, methane, etc into the atmosphere. Both the optical system developments and the methods for testing forecast models are reviewed.

© 2009 Optical Society of America