CERES BDS Aqua FM3: Satellite Radiometric Data for Instrument Validation

CERES Bidirectional Scans (BDS) data from the Aqua satellite's Flight Model 3 instrument, collected for instrument validation purposes. The data product contains twenty-four hours of Level-1B data per scanner, including samples of Earth scans and calibration views. This dataset is produced by NASA as part of the Earth Observing System (EOS) program, with data collection ongoing.

Use Cases

• Validate instrument calibration based on internal and solar calibration views mentioned in the description.
• Analyze satellite position and velocity data for geolocation accuracy.
• Compare radiance count conversion parameters across different scan modes (normal, short, fixed, rotating).
• Monitor instrument health and status using the converted digital status data.

Strengths

• Data collection is explicitly noted as ongoing, suggesting potential for updates.
• Contains additional converted data not found in the raw Level-0 input, including satellite position and celestial data.
• Includes samples from multiple scan elevation profiles and azimuth modes (space, internal, solar calibration).

Limitations

• The description explicitly states the data is intended only for instrument validation and is not suited for science publications.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Collected using the CERES-FM3 instrument on the Aqua satellite platform.

Time Range

Data collection is ongoing; specific temporal coverage is not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 05:11:05.531170; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage from satellite observations.