CERES BDS Aqua FM4: Top-of-Atmosphere Radiance Scans from Satellite

NASA's CERES instrument on the Aqua satellite collected twenty-four hours of Level-1B data per day. The dataset includes geolocated and calibrated top-of-atmosphere filtered radiances, along with satellite position, velocity, and instrument status data. Data collection for this product is complete, with the CERES FM4 instrument launched on May 4, 2002.

Use Cases

• Modeling Earth's radiation budget based on broadband radiometric measurements.
• Calibrating atmospheric models using geolocated top-of-atmosphere radiances.
• Analyzing cloud radiative effects from calibrated shortwave and longwave channel data.
• Validating satellite instrument performance using internal and solar calibration view data.

Strengths

• Data collection is complete, providing a finalized record.
• Includes multiple calibration views (space, internal, solar) for instrument validation.
• Contains converted satellite position and velocity data for precise geolocation.
• Part of a long-term program following the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE).

Limitations

• 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

Collection Method

Collected using the CERES-FM4 instrument on the Aqua satellite platform.

Time Range

Covers twenty-four hours of data per day; specific date range not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 05:11:31.547282; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage from satellite orbits.