SatCORPS CERES GEO Ed4: GOES-15 Southern Hemisphere Cloud and Radiation Data

Southern Hemisphere observations of cloud micro-physical and radiation properties derived hourly from GOES-15 geostationary satellite imager data. The dataset is produced by NASA's Langley Research Center using SatCORPS algorithms for the CERES project, with data arranged in hourly netCDF-4 files. Observations are at a 4 km resolution at nadir and are sub-sampled to 8 km.

Use Cases

• Modeling Earth's radiation budget based on derived cloud and radiation properties.
• Analyzing cloud micro-physical property trends over the Southern Hemisphere based on hourly satellite retrievals.
• Validating atmospheric reanalysis models using cloud data derived from GOES-15 imager observations.

Strengths

• Data is derived from the GOES-15 geostationary satellite, providing consistent observation geometry.
• Version 1.4 uses the GMAO MERRA-2 reanalysis for atmospheric input, an updated model from the previous version.
• Observations are at a 4 km spatial resolution at nadir, suggesting detailed spatial information.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale statistical analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Derived from GOES-15 Imager data using Langley Research Center SatCORPS algorithms.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 21:42:28.982177; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Southern Hemisphere