CERES CRS TRMM Edition2C: Top-of-Atmosphere and Surface Radiative Flux Profiles

CERES Clouds and Radiative Swath data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, computed using the CERES-proto flight model instrument. The product provides one hour of instantaneous data per swath, containing vertical flux profiles at four atmospheric levels for both clear-sky and total-sky conditions. The dataset was produced by NASA, with data collection for this product now complete.

Use Cases

• Modeling Earth's radiation budget based on top-of-atmosphere and surface flux profiles.
• Analyzing cloud radiative effects based on adjusted cloud parameters and fluxes.
• Studying atmospheric energy transport based on vertical flux profiles at four pressure levels.
• Validating climate models based on broadband radiometric measurements from three channels.

Strengths

• Data is derived from a key Earth Observing System (EOS) program component, following the successful ERBE mission.
• Fluxes and cloud parameters are adjusted for consistency with a radiative transfer model.
• Contains vertical flux profiles evaluated at four specific atmospheric levels: surface, 500-, 70-, and 1-hPa.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data collection for this specific TRMM product is complete, limiting temporal coverage.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected using the CERES-proto flight model (PFM) instrument on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) platform.

Time Range

Data collection for this product is complete; specific temporal range is not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 05:08:50.070197; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Likely covers the tropical regions targeted by the TRMM mission, but explicit spatial coverage is not stated.