On the net long-wave radiation determination from satellite data

This paper focuses on long-wave radiation of sea and land surfaces. The SST data is from the Rutherford Appleton Lab, Oxford. Land surface temperature (LST) and land surface emissivity retrieval by use of ATSR data was also discussed. Two points on net longwave radiation are addressed. The formulae used by Reed, Weare et al. and Wells and King-Hele are different from Berliant´s formula, which Oberhuber used, in that surface temperature and air temperature are used differently. The surface temperature derived from satellite thermal band data is the skill temperature. Do we use skill temperature or bulk temperature as inputs to the empirical formula? One empirical formula has been proposed. Three empirical formulae were tested by using TOGA-TAO data and sea surface temperatures derived from ATSR thermal band data in Pacific ocean and by using LST from ATSR-2 thermal band data in UK