The response of clouds to external forcing and internal variability of the climate system is a primary source of uncertainty in predictions of future climate. Tropical convective clouds have the potential to play an important role in determining this global cloud feedback, however, the response of this complex cloud system is highly uncertain, with several contradictory feedback processes proposed in recent years. In this work broadband satellite radiation budget data are used to analyze the behaviour in tropical convective regions in the current climate. Existing monthly mean cloud forcing datasets are used to investigate inter-annual and inter-regional variability in the net radiative forcing. 1nteresting regional and seasonal differences in behaviour are identified and discussed. Attribution of the observed differences is however limited by the averaging of multiple cloud systems inherent in standard monthly mean data products. New high temporal resolution data from the Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget instrument allow this limitation to be addressed. Methods are developed to produce well sampled monthly mean and monthly mean diurnal cycle clear sky flux products. Novel techniques to improve clear sky sampling are tested and implemented, and the resulting products are compared with other satellite and model datasets. A method by which these new data products can be used to separate the effects of individual cloud systems on the radiation budget is then developed and used to investigate the importance of each cloud class within the convective region. By explicitly excluding the effects of low non-convective clouds further insight into the causes of the observed regional and seasonal differences is obtained.