SatCORPS CERES GEO: Hourly Cloud and Radiation Properties from GOES-16

Southern Hemisphere observations from the GOES-16 satellite's Advanced Baseline Imager. The dataset comprises hourly cloud micro-physical and radiation properties at 2 km nadir resolution, sub-sampled to 6 km, processed using Langley Research Center SatCORPS algorithms. Data is provided by NASA in netCDF-4 format, with version 1.4 using MERRA-2 reanalysis for atmospheric input.

Use Cases

• Modeling Earth's radiation budget based on derived cloud and radiation properties.
• Analyzing cloud microphysical evolution based on hourly geostationary satellite data.
• Validating climate models using high-resolution (2 km) cloud property retrievals.
• Studying diurnal cycles of cloud properties over the Southern Hemisphere.

Strengths

• Data is derived from the GOES-16 Advanced Baseline Imager, a primary operational weather satellite.
• Observations are at a high spatial resolution of 2 km at nadir.
• Hourly temporal resolution supports analysis of diurnal cycles.
• Atmospheric input uses the well-regarded MERRA-2 reanalysis in version 1.4.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The description does not specify the exact temporal coverage of the dataset.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Derived from GOES-16 ABI imager data using Langley Research Center SatCORPS algorithms supporting the CERES project.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 22:10:23.671055; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Southern Hemisphere