Year: 2012

Terra’s CERES sensor is one in a series of instruments that measure Earth’s energy balance. On January 27, the newest version of the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) began scanning Earth for the first time, helping to assure continued availability of measurements of the energy leaving the Earth-atmosphere system. Read more.

Two years ago, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., released a study claiming that inconsistencies between satellite observations of Earth’s heat and measurements of ocean heating were evidence there is “missing energy” in the planet’s system. Where was it going? An international team of atmospheric scientists and oceanographers, led by Norman Loeb of NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., and including Graeme Stephens of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., set out to investigate the mystery. Read more.