CERES SYN1deg: 1-Hourly Terra Satellite Radiative Fluxes and Cloud Properties

CERES and GEO-Enhanced TOA, Within-Atmosphere and Surface Fluxes, Clouds and Aerosols 1-Hourly Terra Edition4A provides temporally interpolated top-of-atmosphere radiative fluxes and coincident cloud and aerosol properties. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration produced this dataset by combining data from multiple satellite instruments, including CERES and MODIS on the Terra platform, with geostationary satellite data to enhance diurnal sampling. It offers parameters at a one-hourly temporal resolution and 1-degree regional spatial scales for conditions including all-sky, clear-sky, and pristine skies.

Use Cases

• Modeling Earth's radiative energy budget based on top-of-atmosphere, within-atmosphere, and surface flux data.
• Analyzing diurnal cycles of cloud properties and their radiative impact based on 1-hourly temporal resolution.
• Studying aerosol effects on atmospheric radiation based on computed fluxes for all-sky without aerosol conditions.
• Validating and improving climate models based on CERES-calibrated, geostationary-enhanced flux observations.

Strengths

• Data collection is described as complete, providing a finalized temporal record.
• Fluxes are provided for multiple sky conditions (all-sky, clear-sky, pristine) across longwave, shortwave, and window spectral regions.
• Uses a normalization technique to ensure consistency between CERES and geostationary satellite-derived top-of-atmosphere fluxes.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale processing.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data was collected using several instruments on multiple platforms, including CERES Imaging Radiometers on Geostationary Satellites, CERES Flight Models, and the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on Terra. Computations use the Langley Fu-Liou radiative transfer model with inputs from MODIS, geostationary satellites, and GMAO atmospheric profiles.

Time Range

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Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 05:32:02.171438; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage on a 1-degree equal-angle grid.