Trends in Downwelling Longwave Radiance over the Southern Great Plains

Abstract

Longwave radiation is a key component of the atmospheric energy budget that drives climate change. At the top of the atmosphere (TOA), the outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), as well as its spectrally resolved radiance, is monitored by satellites with global coverage and long-term records (e.g., Liebmann & Smith, 1996;Stephens et al., 2012). This allows us to study changes in OLR and to test climate models (e.g.,