Does ERA5 outperform satellite products in estimating atmospheric downward longwave radiation at the surface?

Atmospheric downward longwave radiation (DLR) is a key component of the surface energy budget in Earth system. Satellite retrievals and atmospheric reanalysis estimates are two typical approaches to obtaining spatio-temporally continuous DLR product. In this study, we evaluated product from latest ERA5 well-known Clouds Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) satellite retrievals, against high-quality observations collected at 46 Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) stations over land surfaces 9 Global Tropical Moored Buoy Array (GTMBA) buoy stations. The accuracy was found be higher on average than that CERES hourly monthly time scales. Conversely, performed slightly worse CERES-SYN when estimating ocean surface. This first has better surface, demonstrating potentially extensive application prospects for as well setting new challenges quantitative remote sensing research. • validated globally in-situ data BSRN GTMBA comprehensively outperforms surfaces. performs