Ye et al. (2025) Spherical Harmonic Fingerprints Characterize Moon‐Based Disk‐Integrated Earth's Emitted Radiation Signatures

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-12-31
• Authors: Hanlin Ye, Huadong Guo, Dong Liang, Mengxiong Zhou, Yin Jin, Guang Jun Liu
• DOI: 10.1029/2025jd044758

Research Groups

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (implied by GEOS-5 model)

Short Summary

This study simulates Moon-based disk-integrated Earth radiation to unravel the influence of orbital dynamics and clouds on planetary-scale radiation variations. It finds that orbital dynamics, particularly synodic and sidereal monthly cycles, dominate these variations, and while clouds systematically reduce radiation, they preserve these orbital-driven periodicities.

Objective

• To unravel the influence of orbital dynamics on Moon-based disk-integrated Earth radiation and quantify how clouds modify these periodic signatures at the planetary scale.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Planetary-scale (disk-integrated Earth radiation as observed from the Moon).
• Temporal Scale: Time-series data, capturing cycles such as the synodic month, sidereal month, and their semiperiodic counterparts.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: NASA's Goddard Earth Observing System Version 5 (GEOS‐5) model; Spherical harmonic decomposition.
• Data sources: Simulated outputs from the GEOS-5 model, mapped onto Moon-based Earth observation geometry.

Main Results

• Moon-based disk-integrated radiation variations are primarily dominated by 1st- and 2nd-degree spherical harmonics, effectively capturing large-scale radiative features while smoothing fine-scale fluctuations.
• Key cycles driven by Earth-Moon geometry include the synodic month, the sidereal month, and their semiperiodic counterparts, which are predominantly governed by sectoral and zonal harmonic components, respectively.
• Clouds systematically reduce disk-integrated radiation but crucially preserve orbital-driven periodicities, indicating that local cloud effects average out while celestial motion signals are retained.

Contributions

• Lays a foundational framework for interpreting disk-integrated radiation features in future Moon-based Earth observation missions.
• Effectively separates orbital dynamics and radiation signatures in disk-integrated observations using spherical harmonic fingerprints.
• Discusses the potential of these observations to refine general circulation models (GCMs) through planetary-scale reality checks and to bridge Earth system science with astrophysics by using Earth as a sample.

Funding

Not specified in the abstract.

Citation

@article{Ye2025Spherical,
  author = {Ye, Hanlin and Guo, Huadong and Liang, Dong and Zhou, Mengxiong and Jin, Yin and Liu, Guang Jun},
  title = {Spherical Harmonic Fingerprints Characterize Moon‐Based Disk‐Integrated Earth's Emitted Radiation Signatures},
  journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1029/2025jd044758},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2025jd044758}
}