Net Radiation Budget Surface Balance

Account measured down/up shortwave and longwave fluxes with declared downward-positive net convention and actual exposure; no inferred surface emissivity, sensible/latent partition or equilibrium temperature.

Description

Net surface radiation accounts for incoming and outgoing shortwave and longwave energy.

Net surface radiation accounts for incoming and outgoing shortwave and longwave energy. Duration weights turn sampled fluxes into accumulated energy on a consistent sign convention.^[1]

When to use Net Radiation Budget Surface Balance

Use this tool to account measured down/up shortwave and longwave fluxes with declared downward-positive net convention and actual exposure; no inferred surface emissivity, sensible/latent partition or equilibrium temperature.

Prepare the observed sounding, cloud records or forecast verification data. Check pressure and height coordinates, wind conventions and the stated units.

How to use Net Radiation Budget Surface Balance and understand its results

Prepare the observed sounding, cloud records or forecast verification data. Check pressure and height coordinates, wind conventions and the stated units.
Enter downwellingShortwaveWPerM2, upwellingShortwaveWPerM2, downwellingLongwaveWPerM2, upwellingLongwaveWPerM2, representedSeconds using the field table and calculation rules, then run the tool.
Read netSurfaceRadiationWPerM2, integratedNetSurfaceRadiationJPerM2, exposureWeightedNetRadiationWPerM2. The explanation below defines the units, signs, ordering and any flags or placeholder values.
If the tool reports an input issue, correct the values and run it again. Apply the stated assumptions when interpreting a successfully returned result.

Input field	Meaning	Value type; see rules below	Requirement
downwellingShortwaveWPerM2	Downwelling shortwave w per m2	list of number	Required
upwellingShortwaveWPerM2	Upwelling shortwave w per m2	list of number	Required
downwellingLongwaveWPerM2	Downwelling longwave w per m2	list of number	Required
upwellingLongwaveWPerM2	Upwelling longwave w per m2	list of number	Required
representedSeconds	Represented seconds	list of number	Required

Enter aligned nonnegative fluxes in W/m² and positive represented seconds. Return each downward-positive net flux, their duration-integrated J/m² and the exposure-weighted mean. Negative net radiation represents a net radiative loss.

Paired lists must be nonempty and have equal lengths.

net = SWdown − SWup + LWdown − LWup; energy = Σnet × represented seconds

Units, indexing, boundary conditions and exceptional cases are defined in the calculation rules above.

Output field	Meaning	Value type
netSurfaceRadiationWPerM2	Net surface radiation w per m2	list of number
integratedNetSurfaceRadiationJPerM2	Integrated net surface radiation j per m2	number
exposureWeightedNetRadiationWPerM2	Exposure weighted net radiation w per m2	number

json

{
  "input": {
    "downwellingShortwaveWPerM2": [
      100,
      200
    ],
    "upwellingShortwaveWPerM2": [
      20,
      60
    ],
    "downwellingLongwaveWPerM2": [
      300,
      300
    ],
    "upwellingLongwaveWPerM2": [
      350,
      330
    ],
    "representedSeconds": [
      1,
      2
    ]
  },
  "output": {
    "netSurfaceRadiationWPerM2": [
      30,
      110
    ],
    "integratedNetSurfaceRadiationJPerM2": 250,
    "exposureWeightedNetRadiationWPerM2": 83.33333333333333
  }
}

Limitations and assumptions

Represented exposures are supplied. Surface emissivity, turbulent heat fluxes and equilibrium temperature are not calculated.

Numeric inputs and returned numeric values must be finite; an unrepresentable returned value produces an error. Numeric lists are limited to 100,000 entries; the rules above may require smaller limits. Missing required fields, extra fields, wrong value types and violations of the calculation rules are input errors.

Alternative or Complementary methods

Use Radiative Forcing CO2 Logarithm: Calculate signed logarithmic CO2 radiative forcing change using caller concentration convention/coefficient; no warming, verified forcing or neglected gas/aerosol response is inferred. For a complementary task, use Greenhouse Effect Enhancement Delta: Compare actual supplied surface temperature against measured outgoing-longwave blackbody-equivalent emission temperature; unlike solar equilibrium temperature, no absorbed/OLR equality or causal greenhouse attribution is assumed.

References

Net Radiation Budget Surface Balance — tool.io

Similar or alternative tools

Radiative Forcing CO2 Logarithm
Calculate signed logarithmic CO2 radiative forcing change using caller concentration convention/coefficient; no warming, verified forcing or neglected gas/aerosol response is inferred.
Greenhouse Effect Enhancement Delta
Compare actual supplied surface temperature against measured outgoing-longwave blackbody-equivalent emission temperature; unlike solar equilibrium temperature, no absorbed/OLR equality or causal greenhouse attribution is assumed.