LASP Science Seminars

The NASA Libera mission was selected last year to continue Earth radiation budget observations into the late 2020s and beyond. An earlier talk provided an overview of the main mission goals and attributes, which on the one hand ensure a seamless data record of band-integrated outgoing longwave (5 to 50 micron) and shortwave (0.3 to 5 micron) radiation, and on the other come with innovations that introduce state-of-the-art technology while propelling the science forward. In our talk, we will present the context and motivation of Libera while reviewing the evolving pathway from the raw radiance measurements to the data products. We will then focus on two Libera additions beyond the heritage instrumentation and discuss their scientific benefits: (1) the split solar channel that allows the separate observation of two spectral sub-ranges; (2) a multi-angle, wide field-of-view camera, which will provide scene parsing for the radiometer, and enable the rapid development of angular distribution models that are essential for converting the radiance observations into climate-relevant products. Finally, we will showcase some new applications and relate these developments to other activities at LASP and partner institutions.