Earth radiation balance and climate: Why the Moon is the wrong place to observe the Earth

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Climate, Cloud Cover, Earth Observations (From Space), Earth Radiation Budget, Lunar Bases, Atmospheric Composition, Climate Change, Global Warming, Remote Sensing, Moon, Space, Utilization, Earth, Moon-Based Observations, Radiation, Climate, Comparison, Satellite Observations, Remote Sensing, Clouds, Environment, Atmosphere, Meteorology, Distance, Geometry

Scientific paper

Increasing 'greenhouse' gases in the Earth's atmosphere will perturb the Earth's radiation balance, forcing climate change over coming decades. Climate sensitivity depends critically on cloud-radiation feedback: its evaluation requires continual observation of changing patterns of Earth radiation balance and cloud cover. The Moon is the wrong place for such observations, with many disadvantages compared to an observation system combining platforms in low polar, intermediate-inclination and geostationary orbits. From the Moon, active observations are infeasible; thermal infrared observations require very large instruments to reach spatial resolutions obtained at much lower cost from geostationary or lower orbits. The Earth's polar zones are never well observed from the Moon; other zones are invisible more than half the time. The monthly illumination cycle leads to further bias in radiation budget determinations. The Earth will be a pretty sight from the Earth-side of the Moon, but serious Earth observations will be made elsewhere.

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