CERES SSF1deg: Hourly Regional TOA Fluxes, Clouds and Aerosols

CER_SSF1deg-Hour_NPP-VIIRS_Edition2A is a NASA CERES product providing regionally averaged top-of-atmosphere fluxes, clouds, and aerosols on a 1-degree latitude-longitude grid. The data is collected hourly by the CERES FM5 and VIIRS instruments aboard the Suomi NPP satellite, with TOA fluxes for clear-sky and all-sky conditions across longwave, shortwave, and window bands. Cloud properties are stratified into four atmospheric layers and aerosols are averaged instantaneous values from the co-located imager.

Use Cases

• Modeling Earth's radiative energy budget based on hourly TOA flux measurements.
• Analyzing cloud property stratification based on four atmospheric layer definitions.
• Studying aerosol optical properties based on averaged instantaneous imager values.
• Comparing clear-sky and all-sky atmospheric conditions based on longwave, shortwave, and window band fluxes.

Strengths

• Data is collected by the CERES FM5 instrument, a key component of NASA's Earth Observing System.
• Cloud properties are provided for day-only and 24-hour periods, stratified into four atmospheric layers.
• TOA fluxes are provided for three distinct wavelength bands: longwave, shortwave, and window.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data collection is described as 'in progress', indicating it may be an ongoing or incomplete series.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by the CERES-Flight Model 5 (FM5) and VIIRS instruments on the Suomi NPP satellite platform.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:52:07.777073; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage on a 1-degree latitude and longitude grid.