CERES ERBE-like Terra Satellite: Monthly Averaged Top-of-Atmosphere Fluxes

CERES instruments on the Terra satellite provide month-long averages of Earth's radiant energy budget. The data product contains nested averages of shortwave and longwave fluxes at the top of the atmosphere, calculated for 2.5-degree regions up to global scales. This Edition 4 product was produced by NASA and uses an algorithm modeled on the legacy Earth Radiation Budget Experiment.

Use Cases

• Model global albedo and net radiation based on nested monthly averages.
• Analyze diurnal patterns of shortwave and longwave fluxes using hourly averages over a month.
• Validate climate models with spatially averaged top-of-atmosphere flux data from the Terra satellite.
• Study regional energy budget variations based on daily average flux estimates derived from hourly data and scene identification.

Strengths

• Data collection is complete, indicating a finalized historical record.
• Fluxes are averaged across multiple spatial scales (2.5-, 5-, 10-degree regions, zonal, and global).
• Product incorporates diurnal models and scene identification data for daily average estimation.

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 CERES-Flight Model (FM1) and FM2 instruments on the Terra satellite platform.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:57:19.833310; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage.