CERES Terra FM2: Monthly Gridded Satellite Fluxes and Cloud Data

CERES Monthly Gridded Single Satellite Fluxes and Clouds Terra FM2 Edition2C is a NASA Earth Observing System data product. It contains regional averages of instantaneous radiative fluxes at the top-of-atmosphere, surface, and within the atmosphere, along with cloud parameters, gridded at 1-degree resolution and averaged by observation hour. Data collection for this product is complete, originating from the CERES FM2 instrument and CERES Scanner on the Terra satellite launched in 1999.

Use Cases

• Modeling Earth's radiation budget based on top-of-atmosphere, surface, and in-atmosphere flux averages.
• Analyzing cloud properties and their radiative effects based on averaged cloud parameters.
• Studying diurnal variations in atmospheric energy flows based on data sorted by Universal Time hour.
• Comparing clear-sky and total-sky radiative conditions based on the included adjusted flux means.

Strengths

• Data originates from a key NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) instrument, the CERES FM2 on Terra.
• Provides averaged data at four distinct atmospheric levels and four cloud height categories.
• Product is described as complete, indicating a finalized data collection period.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data only covers hours of satellite overpass, not a continuous temporal record.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data collected by CERES FM2 and CERES Scanner instruments on the Terra satellite.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 05:02:51.581983; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global, gridded at 1-degree spatial regions.