CERES CCCM Merged Release D1: Integrated Satellite Cloud, Aerosol, and Radiation Data

A merged satellite data product from NASA's CERES program integrating measurements from the CALIPSO, CloudSat, CERES, and MODIS instruments aboard the Aqua satellite. The product contains 24 hours of data per granule, matching cloud and aerosol properties to CERES footprints for radiative analysis. It is produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling top-of-atmosphere radiative fluxes based on integrated shortwave, longwave, and window irradiance data.
• Analyzing cloud-aerosol interactions based on matched CALIOP, CPR, and MODIS-derived cloud and aerosol properties.
• Validating radiative transfer models based on irradiance profiles computed from satellite-derived atmospheric properties.
• Studying cloud radiative effects based on CERES-derived irradiances and MODIS cloud properties.

Strengths

• Integrates data from four key satellite instruments (CALIOP, CPR, CERES FM3, MODIS) for a multi-sensor perspective.
• Contains two sets of Single Scanner Footprint variables: one for the entire CERES footprint and one specifically for the CALIOP/CPR ground track.
• Includes irradiance profiles computed by a radiative transfer model using derived aerosol, cloud, and surface properties.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The product should not be considered a climate data record as input versions and algorithms may change.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data collected by CALIOP on CALIPSO, CloudSat CPR, CERES FM3 Scanner, and MODIS on the Aqua satellite, then merged and processed.

Time Range

Temporal coverage is not specified in the provided input.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 08:04:18.015377; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage from satellite observations.