A history of presatellite investigations of the Earth's Radiation Budget

Abstract

Studies of the earth's radiation budget now form a major part of climate research using measurements made from earth‐orbiting and geostationary satellites. However, there has been considerable interest in this topic well before the development of space observing systems. In this paper we provide the historical perspective to radiation of budget studies and describe the early studies from the beginning of this century until the 1960s.