To provide spacecraft thermal design engineers with the data needed to define the earth albedo and emission, we have analyzed data from the Earth Radiation Balance Experiment (ERBE) over a period of 36 months, covering orbital inclinations of 57 and 99 degrees. Design values of the albedo and earth emission can be obtained from this data directly; however, we present an earth-map (zonal) method for computing design values for any orbital parameters. In addition, the zonal method permits less pessimistic assumptions to be made in a proof-of-design simulation.
