CERES ERBE-like: Monthly Regional Top-of-Atmosphere Fluxes from NOAA-20 FM6

Monthly regional averages of Top-of-the-Atmosphere (TOA) shortwave and longwave fluxes, sorted by 2.5-degree spatial regions, day, and local hour. The data is produced from the CERES instrument on the NOAA-20 satellite (FM6), launched in 2017, using algorithms identical to the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE). It is provided by NASA's CERES program, a key component of the Earth Observing System (EOS).

Use Cases

• Analyzing regional radiation budget trends based on monthly averaged TOA fluxes
• Validating climate model outputs based on clear-sky and total-sky scene averages
• Studying diurnal cycles of atmospheric radiation based on hourly average fluxes
• Comparing satellite-derived radiation data across different CERES instruments based on the ERBE-like algorithm

Strengths

• Data uses algorithms identical to the established Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE)
• Provides averages for both clear-sky and total-sky scenes
• Sourced from the CERES FM6 instrument launched on the NOAA-20 satellite in 2017

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 (NASA)

Collection Method

Space and time-averaged data from the CERES ES-8 Level 2 product, sorted into regional bins.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:58:20.615279; freshness should be verified

Geography

Global coverage, sorted into 2.5-degree spatial regions.