The Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) active-cavity radiometers are used to measure the incoming solar, reflected solar, and emitted longwave radiation from the Earth and its atmosphere. The radiometers are carried by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's NOAA-9 and NOAA-10 spacecraft. Four Earth-viewing nonscanning active-cavity radiometers are carried by each platform. Two of the radiometers are sensitive to radiation in the spectral range from 0.2 to 50 μm, while the other two radiometers are sensitive to radiation in the spectral range from 0.2 to 5.0 μm. Each set of radiometers comes in a wide-field-of-view (WFOV) and a medium-field-of-view (MFOV) configuration. The cavities of the shortwave (visible) radiometers are covered with a Suprasil® hemispherical dome to filter out the incoming longwave radiation.

Knowledge of the optical and physical properties of the radiometers allows their responses to be predicted using a low-order physical model. A high-level, dynamic electrothermal end-to-end model which accurately predicts the radiometers dynamic output has also been completed. This latter model is used to numerically simulate the calibration procedures of the actual instruments. With calibration of the end-to-end model complete, a simulation of a phenomena referred to as the "solar blip" is conducted to investigate the instruments' responses to steep transient events. The solar blip event occurs when direct solar radiation is briefly incident to the active-cavity radiometric channels as the spacecraft passes into and out of the Earth's shadow.