CERES Aqua: Hourly Computed Atmospheric and Surface Radiation Fluxes 2018-2022

CERES Aqua Edition4A provides hourly averages of computed radiative fluxes on a 1-degree global grid from 2018 to 2022. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration processed data from the Aqua satellite's CERES instrument using the Fu-Liou radiative transfer model with four atmospheric assumptions. Variables include top-of-atmosphere, within-atmosphere, and surface fluxes derived from three broadband radiometric channels.

Use Cases

• Modeling Earth's energy budget based on computed top-of-atmosphere, within-atmosphere, and surface fluxes.
• Analyzing diurnal cycles of radiative energy based on hourly data on a 1-degree grid.
• Studying cloud and aerosol radiative effects based on fluxes computed under total-sky, clear-sky, pristine, and total-sky-no-aerosol assumptions.
• Validating climate models based on observed CERES shortwave and longwave ToA fluxes included in the product.

Strengths

• Data spans a 5-year period from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2022.
• Fluxes are computed using four distinct atmospheric assumptions in the Fu-Liou radiative transfer model.
• Provides hourly averages on a consistent 1-degree latitude and longitude global grid.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The description suggests the product should be used in conjunction with another dataset for complete cloud and aerosol properties.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Variables from CERES Aqua FM3/FM4 instantaneous footprint data are assigned to a grid box and linearly averaged.

Time Range

January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2022

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:55:47.832323; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global, 1-degree latitude and longitude grid