THE SURFACE ENERGY BUDGET AND ITS GLOBAL IMBALANCE HAVE PROFOUND IMPLICATIONS FOR CLIMATE MEAN STATE AND CLIMATE CHANGES. THERE ARE ONGOING DEBATES REGARDING THE DETAILS OF THE SURFACE ENERGY BUDGET. THE CERES EBAF (ENERGY BALANCED AND FILLED) SURFACE PRODUCT HAS ITS UNIQUE VALUE IN SUCH STUDIES FOR ITS TOP-DOWN CONSTRAINTS OF THE SURFACE RADIATIVE FLUXES WHICH MAKES IT FULLY CONSISTENT WITH THE TOA RADIATION BUDGET ESTABLISHED BY THE CERES EBAF ALGORITHM. IN THIS STUDY WE PROPOSE TO USE ADDITIONAL LONGWAVE SPECTRAL RADIANCE OBSERVATIONS FROM AIRS (ATMOSPHERIC INFRARED SOUNDER) TO STRENGTHEN THE TOP-DOWN CONSTRAINTS IN THE CERES EBAF-SURFACE ALGORITHM IN MULTIPLE WAYS. SPECIFICALLY WE PROPOSE FOLLOWING THREE SUB-TASKS. 1. BASED ON A MULTI-YEAR (09/2002-08/2015) AIRS NADIR-VIEW RADIANCE DATA SET ARCHIVED BY THE PI'S GROUP WE PROPOSE TO PROVIDE TIME SERIES OF RADIANCES AT ALL AIRS GOOD CHANNELS AS WELL AS DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPERTIES AND PERFORMANCE OF SUCH CHANNELS OVER MULTIPLE YEARS. BY DOING SO AIRS SPECTRAL RADIANCES CAN BE DIRECTLY USED TO PERFORM THE UPPER TROPOSPHERE (UT) TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY CORRECTIONS IN THE CERES EBAF-SURFACE ALGORITHM AND CAN BE POTENTIALLY USED FOR CORRECTIONS OF TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY PROFILES IN OTHER PART OF THE ATMOSPHERE AS WELL. 2. BASED ON A MULTIPLE-YEAR DATA SET (09/2002-12/2014) OF SPECTRAL FLUX OVER THE ENTIRE LONGWAVE SPECTRUM DEVELOPED BY THE PI'S GROUP WE PROPOSE TO USE IT IN ADDITION TO THE TOA BROADBAND FLUX FROM CERES EBAF EDITION 4 FOR THE TOP-DOWN CONSTRAINTS. THE PREMISE IS THAT A CORRECTLY CONSTRAINED SCENARIO SHOULD BE ABLE TO NOT ONLY MATCH THE BROADBAND TOA FLUX BUT ALSO MATCH THE SPECTRAL DECOMPOSITION OF THE FLUX. CURRENTLY THE DATA SET IS BASED ON COLLOCATED AIRS AND CERES OBSERVATIONS. WE WILL CARRY OUT SAMPLING STUDY USING THE LATEST 6-HOURLY REANALYSIS DATA TO INVESTIGATE ITS SAMPLING UNCERTAINTY WITH RESPECT TO TRUE MONTHLY-MEAN DATA SET AND CONSEQUENTLY DECIDE THE BEST STRATEGY TO INCLUDE IT IN THE CERES EBAF-SURFACE ALGORITHM. 3. WE PROPOSE TO IMPLEMENT A NEW GLOBAL SURFACE SPECTRAL EMISSIVITY OVER THE ENTIRE LONGWAVE DEVELOPED IN THE PI'S GROUP INTO THE EBAF-SURFACE ALGORITHM. THE UNIQUE STRENGTH OF THIS DATA SET IS ITS COVERAGE OVER THE FAR-IR. THE DATA OF ITS MID-IR PORTION IS ANCHORED ON MODIS SURFACE EMISSIVITY RETRIEVALS AND THEN IS VALIDATED AGAINST IASI SURFACE EMISSIVITY RETRIEVALS WHILE THE EXTENSION TO FAR-IR PORTION IS BASED ON FIRST-PRINCIPLE CALCULATION EXCEPT FOR THE SURFACE TYPES OF VEGETATION. WE WILL START FROM TASKS 1 AND 2 IN THE FIRST YEAR AND CONTRIBUTE IN A TIMELY MANNER FOR THE RELEASE OF CERES EBAF-SURFACE DATA PRODUCT. WE WILL KEEP ARCHIVING AND PROCESSING THE DATA IN A TIMELY MANNER TO ENSURE CONTINUITY AND MINIMUM LATENCY IN DATA PRODUCTION. THESE PROPOSED WORKS INVESTIGATE FEASIBLE AND EFFECTIVE VENUES OF INTEGRATING LW SPECTRAL OBSERVATIONS AND INFORMATION INTO THE CERES-EBAF ALGORITHM AIMING FOR A BETTER-CONSTRAINED SURFACE RADIATION BUDGET FROM SUCH TOP-DOWN APPROACHES. THUS THIS WORK WILL EVENTUALLY CONTRIBUTE TO THE ADVANCE OF OUR UNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT THE SURFACE ENERGY BUDGET AND ITS SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIATIONS.