Title: DEMETER: DEMonstrating the Emerging Technology for Measuring the Earth's Radiation
Presenting Author: Anum Ashraf
Organization: NASA Langley
Co-Author(s): Kory Priestley, Mohan Shankar

Abstract:
DEMETER, which stands for DEMonstrating the Emerging Technology for measuring the Earth s Radiation, is a small sensorcraft that will demonstrate a revolutionary approach for measuring Earth s Radiation Budget Fundamental Climate Data Record (ERB-FCDR) from Low Earth Orbit (LEO). This measurement is comprised of global Top-Of-Atmosphere (TOA) broadband radiance fields which include total reflected solar and outgoing longwave radiation. DEMETER is a sensorcraft mission solution that goes beyond preserving observational and radiometric continuity of the existing multi-decadal FCDR; it exploits new technology, integrating it with existing high TRL capability assets, and capitalizes on concurrent investments in technology demonstration flight programs from multiple agencies. This greatly expands the scientific utility of the Earth Radiation Budget Thematic Climate Data Record (ERB-TCDR). Our solution increases the spatial resolution of the measurement by a factor of 10, which enables more accurate clear-versus-cloudy sky investigations, provides in-situ data processing capability on the sensorcraft, while also reducing mass, power and cost by an order of magnitude over current approaches and brings a potentially new data set of reflected solar polarimetric observations. Reduced accommodations enable insertion of the sensorcraft into multiple orbits for more complete global diurnal sampling of the radiation fields, while providing robustness against a possible gap in the observational record.