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The BIPM and WMO hosted a five-day workshop in Sept. 2022 to assess the state of current metrology and identify future meteorological needs regarding climate change for the upcoming decade. A resulting broad policy-oriented workshop summary report, written by the workshop’s ~70 international organizers and reviewed by meeting attendees, identifies the current issues in each of nine high-level topic areas and provides recommendations to address them, listing specific needs, pathways, timelines, and responsible agencies or organizations for each. One prominent Topic within the workshop, “Earth Energy Balance,” was organized by the authors of this presentation and resulted in a section of the workshop summary report using the contributions from the topic’s several pre-recorded oral and poster presentations and the outcomes of two interactive real-time community-wide discussion sessions. The Earth-energy-balance topic issues centered on three areas: Radiometric energy measurements, including needed accuracies and stabilities and the use of SI-Traceable Satellites (SITSats), such as CLARREO and TRUTHS, to achieve them; improved on-orbit calibration sources, including the Sun and the Moon, thermal-infrared and UV sources, and space-flight blackbodies; and the four primary Earth-heat storage reservoirs of the oceans, land, permafrost, and cryosphere, giving an inventory of where and how much of the Earth’s energy is stored and how much uptake there is of the incoming energy.This presentation will summarize the results of the Earth Energy Balance topic from the 2022 BIPM-WMO Metrology for Climate Action Workshop., The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023)

The Precision Solar Spectroradiometer (PSR) is a new spectroradiometer developed at Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos - World Radiation Center (PMOD-WRC), Davos, measuring direct solar irradiance at the surface, in the 300-1020nm spectral range and at high temporal resolution. The purpose of this work is to investigate the instrument's potential to retrieve integrated water vapour (IWV) using its spectral measurements. Two different approaches were developed in order to retrieve IWV: the first one uses single-channel and wavelength measurements, following a theoretical water vapour high absorption wavelength, and the second one uses direct sun irradiance integrated at a certain spectral region. IWV results have been validated using a 2-year data set, consisting of an AERONET sun-photometer Cimel CE318, a Global Positioning System (GPS), a microwave radiometer profiler (MWP) and radiosonde retrievals recorded at Meteorological Observatorium Lindenberg, Germany. For the monochromatic approach, better agreement with retrievals from other methods and instruments was achieved using the 946nm channel, while for the spectral approach the 934-948nm window was used. Compared to other instruments' retrievals, the monochromatic approach leads to mean relative differences up to 3.3% with the coefficient of determination (R2) being in the region of 0.87-0.95, while for the spectral approach mean relative differences up to 0.7% were recorded with R2 in the region of 0.96-0.98. Uncertainties related to IWV retrieval methods were investigated and found to be less than 0.28cm for both methods. Absolute IWV deviations of differences between PSR and other instruments were determined the range of 0.08-0.30cm and only in extreme cases would reach up to 15%. © Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

This study examines the adequacy of the existing Brewer network to supplement other networks from the ground and space to detect SO2plumes of volcanic origin. It was found that large volcanic eruptions of the last decade in the Northern Hemisphere have a positive columnar SO2signal seen by the Brewer instruments located under the plume. It is shown that a few days after the eruption the Brewer instrument is capable of detecting significant columnar SO2increases, exceeding on average 2-DU relative to an unperturbed pre-volcanic 10-day baseline, with a mean close to 0 and σ Combining double low line 0.46, as calculated from the 32 Brewer stations under study. Intercomparisons with independent measurements from the ground and space as well as theoretical calculations corroborate the capability of the Brewer network to detect volcanic plumes. For instance, the comparison with OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument) and GOME-2 (Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2) SO2space-borne retrievals shows statistically significant agreement between the Brewer network data and the collocated satellite overpasses in the case of the Kasatochi eruption. Unfortunately, due to sparsity of satellite data, the significant positive departures seen in the Brewer and other ground networks following the Eyjafjallajökull, Bár∂arbunga and Nabro eruptions could not be statistically confirmed by the data from satellite overpasses. A model exercise from the MACC (Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate) project shows that the large increases in SO2over Europe following the Bár∂arbunga eruption in Iceland were not caused by local pollution sources or ship emissions but were clearly linked to the volcanic eruption. Sulfur dioxide positive departures in Europe following Bár∂arbunga could be traced by other networks from the free troposphere down to the surface (AirBase (European air quality database) and EARLINET (European Aerosol Research Lidar Network)). We propose that by combining Brewer data with that from other networks and satellites, a useful tool aided by trajectory analyses and modelling could be created which can also be used to forecast high SO2values both at ground level and in air flight corridors following future eruptions. © Author(s) 2017.

Spectrophotometers used for spectral measurements of the solar ultraviolet radiation need to be well characterised to provide accurate and reliable data. Since the characterisation and calibration are usually performed in the laboratory under conditions very different from those encountered during solar measurements, it is essential to address all issues concerned with the representativity of the laboratory characterisation with respect to the solar measurements. These include among others the instrument stability, the instrument linearity, the instrument responsivity, the wavelength accuracy, the spectral resolution, stray light rejection and the instrument dependence on ambient temperature fluctuations. These instrument parameters need to be determined often enough so that the instrument changes only marginally in the period between successive characterisations and therefore provides reliable data for the intervening period.

Ground-based aerosol optical depth (AOD) climatologies at three high-altitude sites in Switzerland (Jungfraujoch and Davos) and Southern Germany (Hohenpeissenberg) are updated and re-calibrated for the period 1995 – 2010. In addition, AOD time-series are augmented with previously unreported data, and are homogenized for the first time. Trend analysis revealed weak AOD trends (λ = 500 nm) at Jungfraujoch (JFJ; +0.007 decade-1), Davos (DAV; +0.002 decade-1) and Hohenpeissenberg\ud (HPB; -0.011 decade-1) where the JFJ and HPB trends were statistically significant at the 95% and 90% confidence levels. However, a linear trend for the JFJ 1995 – 2005 period was found to be more appropriate than for 1995 – 2010 due to the influence of stratospheric AOD which gave a trend -0.003 decade-1 (significant at 95% level). When correcting for a recently available stratospheric AOD time-series, accounting for Pinatubo (1991) and more recent volcanic eruptions, the\ud 1995 – 2010 AOD trends decreased slightly at DAV and HPB but remained weak at +0.000 decade-1 and -0.013 decade-1 (significant at 95% level). The JFJ 1995 – 2005 AOD time-series similarly decreased to -0.003 decade-1 (significant at 95% level). We conclude that despite a more detailed re40\ud analysis of these three time-series, which have been extended by five years to the end of 2010, a significant decrease in AOD at these three high-altitude sites has still not been observed.

The quality assurance of the two Brewer spectrophotometers of the Finnish Meteorological Institute is discussed in this paper. The complete data processing chain from raw signal to high quality spectra is presented. The quality assurance includes daily maintenance, laboratory characterizations, calculation of long term spectral responsivity, data processing and quality assessment. The cosine correction of the measurements is based on a new method, and included in the data processing software. The results showed that the actual cosine correction factor of the Finnish Brewers can vary between 1.08–1.13 and 1.08–1.12, respectively, depending on the sky radiance distribution and wavelength. The temperature characterization showed a linear temperature dependence between the internal temperature and the photon counts per cycle, and a temperature correction was used for correcting the measurements. The long term spectral responsivity was calculated using time series of several lamps using two slightly different methods. The long term spectral responsivity was scaled to the irradiance scale of the Helsinki University of Technology (HUT) for the whole measurement time periods 1990–2006 and 1995–2006 for Sodankylä and Jokioinen, respectively. Both Brewers have participated in many international spectroradiometer comparisons, and have shown good stability. The differences between the Brewers and the portable reference spectroradiometer QASUME have been within 5% during 2002–2007.

Ultraviolet radiation is the key factor driving tropospheric photochemistry. It is strongly modulated by clouds and aerosols. A quantitative understanding of the radiation field and its effect on photochemistry is thus only possible with a detailed knowledge of the interaction between clouds and radiation. The overall objective of the project INSPECTRO was the characterization of the three-dimensional actinic radiation field under cloudy conditions. This was achieved during two measurement campaigns in Norfolk (East Anglia, UK) and Lower Bavaria (Germany) combining space-based, aircraft and ground-based measurements as well as simulations with the one-dimensional radiation transfer model UVSPEC and the three-dimensional radiation transfer model MYSTIC. During both campaigns the spectral actinic flux density was measured at several locations at ground level and in the air by up to four different aircraft. This allows the comparison of measured and simulated actinic radiation profiles. In addition satellite data were used to complete the information of the three dimensional input data set for the simulation. A three-dimensional simulation of actinic flux density data under cloudy sky conditions requires a realistic simulation of the cloud field to be used as an input for the 3-D radiation transfer model calculations. Two different approaches were applied, to derive high- and low-resolution data sets, with a grid resolution of about 100 m and 1 km, respectively. The results of the measured and simulated radiation profiles as well as the results of the ground based measurements are presented in terms of photolysis rate profiles for ozone and nitrogen dioxide. During both campaigns all spectroradiometer systems agreed within ±10% if mandatory corrections e.g. stray light correction were applied. Stability changes of the systems were below 5% over the 4 week campaign periods and negligible over a few days. The J(O1D) data of the single monochromator systems can be evaluated for zenith angles less than 70°, which was satisfied by nearly all airborne measurements during both campaigns. The comparison of the airborne measurements with corresponding simulations is presented for the total, downward and upward flux during selected clear sky periods of both campaigns. The compliance between the measured (from three aircraft) and simulated downward and total flux profiles lies in the range of ±15%.