CERES CCCM: Integrated Satellite Cloud, Aerosol, and Radiative Energy Data from Aqua

NASA's CERES A-Train integrated data product merges measurements from the Aqua satellite's CALIPSO, CloudSat, CERES, and MODIS instruments. The dataset contains matched cloud, aerosol, and radiative properties, including top-of-atmosphere irradiances and profiles computed by radiative transfer models. Data collection for this product is complete, and the resulting HDF granules contain 24 hours of data.

Use Cases

• Modeling Earth's radiative energy budget based on integrated CERES, MODIS, CALIPSO, and CloudSat measurements.
• Studying cloud-aerosol interactions and radiative effects based on matched cloud and aerosol property profiles.
• Analyzing top-of-atmosphere shortwave and longwave irradiances based on CERES-derived angular distribution models.
• Validating climate models using collocated satellite observations of cloud microphysics and atmospheric radiation.

Strengths

• Integrates measurements from four key satellite instruments (CALIPSO, CloudSat, CERES, MODIS) into a single matched product.
• Contains both footprint-wide and ground-track-specific cloud and aerosol property variables.
• Includes irradiance profiles computed by a radiative transfer model using derived aerosol, cloud, and surface properties.

Limitations

• The product should not be considered a climate data record due to potential changes in input data versions and algorithms.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Data was collected using the CALIOP on CALIPSO, CERES Flight Model 3 (FM3), CERES Scanner, MODIS, and CloudSat on the Aqua satellite.

Time Range

Data collection for this product is complete; specific temporal coverage is not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 08:05:18.063538; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage from Aqua satellite observations.