The Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) consists of a suite of three scanning and four nonscanning radiometric instruments on each of three satellites which monitor the solar-reflected and Earth-emitted components of the Earth's radiative energy budget. A numerical model has been formulated to study the dynamic behavior and equivalence of the ERBE scanning thermistor bolometer radiometers.

The finite-difference method is applied to the detector of the ERBE scanning radiometer to characterize its thermal and electrical dynamic behavior. The thermal analysis confirms the thermal time constant of the instrument claimed by the vendor. The electrical model reveals that the instrument can be very sensitive to spatial variations of the incident thermal radiation. However, the analysis confirms that the hypothesis of equivalence is justified for viewing typical Earth scenes.