CERES SYN1deg: Monthly Satellite Radiative Fluxes, Clouds and Aerosols at 1° Resolution

CERES and GEO-Enhanced TOA, Within-Atmosphere and Surface Fluxes, Clouds and Aerosols Monthly Terra-Aqua-NOAA20 Edition4B is a NASA Earth science data product. It provides monthly, gridded data on radiative fluxes, cloud properties, and aerosols at a three-hourly temporal resolution and 1-degree regional spatial scale, derived from multiple satellite instruments. Data collection for this product is ongoing, with the latest metadata update from March 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling Earth's radiative energy budget based on top-of-atmosphere, within-atmosphere, and surface flux data.
• Analyzing cloud property variability and its impact on climate based on MODIS, VIIRS, and geostationary-derived cloud parameters.
• Studying aerosol optical depth and its radiative forcing under all-sky and clear-sky conditions.
• Investigating diurnal cycles of radiation using temporally interpolated data enhanced with geostationary satellite observations.
• Validating and constraining climate models using CERES-observed fluxes adjusted via the Langley Fu-Liou radiative transfer model.

Strengths

• Integrates data from multiple authoritative satellite platforms: CERES instruments on Terra, Aqua, and NOAA-20, MODIS, VIIRS, and geostationary imagers.
• Provides computed fluxes for multiple atmospheric conditions: all-sky, clear-sky, pristine, and all-sky without aerosols.
• Uses a normalization technique to ensure consistency between CERES and geostationary satellite-derived top-of-atmosphere fluxes.
• Data is provided on a standardized 1-degree equal-angle grid with three-hourly temporal resolution.

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.
• Not all instrument platforms are available for any particular data month, as noted in the description.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing data from CERES, MODIS, VIIRS, and geostationary imagers, processed using the Langley Fu-Liou radiative transfer model with atmospheric profiles from NASA GMAO.

Time Range

Ongoing collection; specific start date is not provided in the input.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 08:00:25.580377; data collection is described as ongoing.

Geography

Global coverage on a 1-degree regional spatial scale.