The Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) is the first multi-satellite system designed to measure the Earth's radiation budget. It will fly on a low-inclination NASA satellite and two Sun-synchronous NOAA satellites during the mid-1980s. Each satellite will carry two instrument packages—a scanner and a nonscanner—each package containing a complete, traceable system for inflight calibration. The nonscanner package has four Earth-viewing channels, as well as a solar monitor similar to that flown on the Solar Max Mission. The nonscanner detectors are the first Earth-viewing active cavity radiometers. The scanner package contains three thermistor bolometers which scan the Earth perpendicular to the orbital track. The data from the satellite radiometers will be brought to the top of the atmosphere using a pixel-by-pixel process for the scanner data and a numerical filter for the nonscanner. The inversion will use angular directional models based on the Nimbus 7 ERB instruments, selecting the approp... Abstract The Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) is the first multi-satellite system designed to measure the Earth's radiation budget. It will fly on a low-inclination NASA satellite and two Sun-synchronous NOAA satellites during the mid-1980s. Each satellite will carry two instrument packages—a scanner and a nonscanner—each package containing a complete, traceable system for inflight calibration. The nonscanner package has four Earth-viewing channels, as well as a solar monitor similar to that flown on the Solar Max Mission. The nonscanner detectors are the first Earth-viewing active cavity radiometers. The scanner package contains three thermistor bolometers which scan the Earth perpendicular to the orbital track. The data from the satellite radiometers will be brought to the top of the atmosphere using a pixel-by-pixel process for the scanner data and a numerical filter for the nonscanner. The inversion will use angular directional models based on the Nimbus 7 ERB instruments, selecting the approp...