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Abstract

The NASA Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Energy Balanced and Filled (EBAF) product fluxes are used to monitor the Earth’s energy balance and validate climate models. The CERES EBAF product relies on Terra (10:30 MLT) and Aqua 1:30 MLT) CERES flux observations and the hourly geostationary (GEO) derived broadband fluxes to estimate the regional diurnal cycle. The CERES EBAF product migrated to a NOAA-20 and GEO based flux product during the April 2022 data month, due to the drifting Terra and Aqua orbits. The hourly GEO fluxes are now critical to resolve the regional diurnal cycle. A constellation containing CERES-like sensors would be able to monitor the regional diurnal flux variability more accurately as well as to further constrain the GEO derived fluxes, than a dataset based on a single CERES sensor. The Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget sensor provides 15-minute broadband fluxes that can be used to perform orbital sampling studies. The GERB (Meteosat 0° East) satellite domain encompasses all the systematic diurnal cycle regions including maritime stratus, afternoon convection, and desert land heating. The CERES temporal SW and LW interpolation and averaging algorithms will be applied to the hypothetical orbit sampled fluxes to estimate both the regional daily and monthly mean fluxes as well as hourly and monthly hourly fluxes, which will be compared to the GERB averaged regional fluxes. Combinations of sun-synchronous and precessionary orbit sampling will be evaluated to identify constellations that capture the daily diurnal TOA flux variability.