SEVIRI All-Sky Radiances with 3-Hourly Brightness Temperatures

Reprocessed SEVIRI All-Sky Radiances product contains mean brightness temperatures from all thermal infrared and water vapor channels for 16x16 pixel areas. The product, generated by EUMETSAT using version 1.5.3 software and ECMWF ERA-interim data, includes clear and cloudy sky brightness temperatures, clear sky fraction, and solar zenith angle. Data is BUFR encoded and provided at 3-hourly intervals on every third quarter hour.

Use Cases

• Classify clear vs. cloudy sky conditions using the clear sky fraction field for atmospheric state analysis.
• Analyze diurnal cycles of thermal emission by correlating brightness temperatures with the solar zenith angle across the 3-hourly time series.
• Validate numerical weather prediction models by comparing forecasted brightness temperatures from infrared and water vapor channels against these observed radiances.
• Study cloud radiative effects by examining the difference between clear-sky and all-sky brightness temperature fields.

Strengths

• Reprocessed with a consistent software version (1.5.3) and ECMWF ERA-interim re-analysis data for homogeneity.
• Provides spatially averaged data (16x16 pixels, ~50km at nadir) reducing file size for continental-scale analysis.
• Includes both clear and cloudy sky brightness temperatures, enabling comparative atmospheric studies.

Limitations

• Temporal resolution is 3-hourly, which may miss rapid convective or diurnal cycle developments.
• Spatial resolution is coarse (~50km at nadir), limiting analysis of small-scale meteorological features.
• Reprocessing used software from 2013, and the dataset itself is from a 2012 release, making it temporally stale for current research.

Provenance

Source

EUMETSAT, generated from SEVIRI instrument on the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite at 0-degree longitude.

Collection Method

Reprocessing of original level 1.5 SEVIRI images using EUMETSAT software version 1.5.3, ingested with ECMWF ERA-interim forecast re-analysis data.

Time Range

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Freshness

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Geography

Full-disk coverage from the MSG satellite at 0 degrees longitude, primarily covering Europe, Africa, and parts of the Atlantic.