CERES Satellite Top-Of-Atmosphere Radiative Fluxes And Cloud Properties

Global satellite-derived measurements of Earth's top-of-atmosphere radiative energy budget and cloud properties. The dataset provides monthly and climatological averages from March 2000 onward, combining data from NASA's Terra, Aqua, and NOAA-20 satellite platforms. Produced by NASA's CERES project, it represents a best-estimate, regionally complete product constrained by ocean heat storage.

Use Cases

• Validating climate model simulations of Earth's radiative energy budget using all-sky and clear-sky flux variables.
• Analyzing long-term trends in cloud radiative forcing using derived cloud property data alongside radiative fluxes.
• Studying the diurnal cycle of clouds and their impact on radiation using imager-derived cloud properties.
• Investigating regional and temporal variations in solar irradiance and outgoing longwave radiation.
• Assessing the closure of Earth's energy budget by constraining net TOA flux with ocean heat storage data.

Strengths

• Provides regionally complete clear-sky fluxes, unlike other CERES products with data gaps.
• Integrates data from multiple satellite platforms (Terra, Aqua, NOAA-20) and geostationary satellites to model the full diurnal cycle.
• Represents the CERES project's best estimate of fluxes, using all available platforms and input data with cross-calibration.
• Time series spans over two decades, from March 2000 to the present, with ongoing data collection.

Limitations

• Sources conflict on the specific edition (4.2.1 vs. 4.1) and the complete satellite timeline (NOAA-20 inclusion).
• Column names and exact data size (row count) are not provided by any source platform.
• Relies on meteorological assimilation models (GEOS, MERRA-2), introducing dependencies on those datasets.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), CERES project.

Collection Method

Data collected by CERES Scanner instruments on Terra, Aqua, and NOAA-20 satellites, with cloud properties derived from MODIS and VIIRS imagers.

Time Range

March 2000 to present (ongoing).

Freshness

2026-03-13 05:07:14.960546

Geography

Global.