The ScaRaB project: earth radiation budget observations from the meteor satellites

France, Russia, and Germany are cooperating in the construction and calibration of a Scanning Radiometer for Radiation Balance ( ScaRaB), to be flown on the Soviet/Russian Meteor-3 series polar orbiting weather satellites, with launches scheduled annually beginning in summer 1993. The instrument comprises 2 broad channels (total, solar) for radiation budget, and 2 narrower bands for scene identification, with spatial resolution 60 km at nadir. We describe the instrument design and calibration procedures. The data processing algorithms follow the general lines adopted in the NASA Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) so as to ensure continuity in the long-term series of data. We describe the data products which will be archived and made available to the international scientific community.