The theoretical studies shown here indicate that the best bands to measure and derive the total outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), surface downwarf flux (SDF), and cooling rates (CRs) using linear regression are (1) the band between 800 and 1200 cm-1 for OLR, (2) the band between 500 and 660 cm-1 or 660 and 800 cm-1 for SDF, and (3) the band between 660 and 800 cm-1 for CRs. These results are obtained from scatter plots of total fluxes and cooling rates associated with the various bands. The advanced very high resolution radiometer OLR is damped compared with the Nimbus 7 Earth radiation budget (ERB) OLR, which is derived from the broadband, narrow field of view ERB instrument, owing to its use of only one narrow band (centered around the 11-μm window region) measurement.