CERES CRS Aqua-FM3 MODIS Edition2B: Cloud and Radiative Swath Data

CERES FM3 instrument on the Aqua satellite collected one hour of instantaneous data for each scanner footprint. The product contains all Single Scanner Footprint (SSF) data and includes vertical flux profiles evaluated at four atmospheric levels. NASA produced this data as part of the Earth Observing System (EOS), with the Aqua platform launch occurring on May 4, 2002.

Use Cases

• Modeling cloud radiative forcing based on adjusted clear-sky and total-sky flux profiles.
• Analyzing atmospheric energy transfer based on vertical flux profiles at surface, 500-, 70-, and 1-hPa levels.
• Comparing satellite-derived radiation budgets across different CERES instrument editions (e.g., Ed2B vs. Ed2C).
• Studying cloud properties and their interaction with radiative fluxes based on CERES SSF product data.

Strengths

• Data collection is complete, providing a finalized snapshot.
• Fluxes and cloud parameters are adjusted for consistency with a radiative transfer model.
• Product includes vertical flux profiles at four distinct atmospheric levels.

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 description notes that more recent (2006) CRS Ed2C fields show more bias than the average of earlier (2002-2005) Ed2B data for certain conditions.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 04:04:24.869230; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage from satellite swaths.