A radiative transfer model was used together with mean monthly long-term climatological data to infer the net radiation budget of the Northern Hemisphere for latitudinal zones of 10¿ width. Most of the data were taken from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project and supplemented by data from the collaboration between National Centers for Environmental Prediction and National Center for Atmospheric Research, for the vertical profiles of water vapor and temperature. Seasonal and latitudinal variations of net shortwave, longwave, and all-wave radiative fluxes and cloud radiative forcings were estimated at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) and at the Earth's surface, and also radiative cooling/heating rates, together with their mean annual and mean hemispherical variations. The validation of the net TOA all-wave fluxes is based on a comparison with 5 years mean Earth Radiation Budget Experiment data for the shortwave and longwave fluxes in two of our previous studies. The net all-wave fluxes were found to be mainly determined by the net shortwave fluxes. Near radiative equilibrium was found on a mean annual basis for net all-wave radiation at TOA, while at the surface a gain of 99 W m-2 was found for the hemisphere. The estimated net all-wave forcings generally decrease from equator to pole, with local maxima in middle to high latitudes, and from summer to winter. The net shortwave cloud forcings were found to dominate the net longwave ones, by a factor of about 2. Mean annual hemispherical cloud forcings equal to 25 W m-2 and 13 W m-2 were computed at TOA and at the surface, respectively. A net all-wave atmospheric radiative cooling was computed, which decreases from equator to pole, with a local maximum in the subtropics, and from winter to summer, having a mean annual hemispherical value of 97 W m-2. For all fluxes, forcings, and cooling/heating rates, detailed comparisons with the work of other authors were performed, and the main discrepancies are discussed. ¿ 1999 American Geophysical Union