About the Baseline Surface Radiation Network

The Earth’s radiation budget is essential for driving the general circulation of the atmosphere and ocean and for building the main conditions for the Earth's climate system. To detect changes in the Earth’s surface radiation field the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) and its central archive - the World Radiation Monitoring Center (WRMC) - was created in 1992. BSRN is a project of the Data and Assessments Panel of the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) under the umbrella of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). It is the global baseline network for surface radiation for the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), contributing to the Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW), and forming a cooperative network with the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC). The data are of primary importance in supporting the validation and confirmation of satellite and computer model estimates. At a relatively small number of stations (currently 58) in contrasting climatic zones, solar and infrared radiation is measured with instruments of the highest available accuracy with high temporal resolution (mainly 1 minute). A total of over 7500 station-month datasets were available in the WRMC. The poster will present the current state of the archive, the quality control mechanisms for the data and how scientists can access and use the data.