CERES TRMM Edition2C: Monthly Gridded Satellite Fluxes and Clouds

CERES FSW TRMM-PFM-VIRS Edition2C is a Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) monthly gridded data product for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). It contains regional averages of instantaneous footprint computed fluxes at the top-of-atmosphere, surface, and within the atmosphere, along with cloud parameters, averaged by 1-degree spatial regions and observation hour. The data collection is complete, with the first CERES instrument launched on November 27, 1997.

Use Cases

• Model Earth's radiative energy budget based on top-of-atmosphere, surface, and atmospheric flux averages.
• Analyze cloud property distributions based on column-averaged cloud parameters.
• Study regional climate patterns based on 1-degree gridded monthly averages of satellite observations.
• Compare clear-sky and total-sky radiative fluxes based on adjusted flux data at four atmospheric levels.
• Investigate cloud height categories based on atmospheric intervals defined at 700-, 500-, 300-hPa, and TOA.

Strengths

• Data collection is complete, covering the full mission period.
• Includes fluxes at four distinct atmospheric levels for both clear-sky and total-sky scenes.
• Provides cloud properties categorized into four specific height intervals.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data collected by the CERES Scanner and CERES protoflight model (PFM) on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) platform.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:55:27.535855; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Likely global coverage from satellite observations.