SatCORPS CERES GEO: Hourly Cloud and Radiation Properties from GOES-8

CER_GEO_Ed4_GOE08_NH_V01 is a data product from the Satellite Cloud and Radiation Property retrieval System (SatCORPS) supporting the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) project. It comprises hourly cloud micro-physical and radiation properties derived from GOES-8 geostationary satellite imager data at 4 km resolution, sub-sampled to 8 km, for the Northern Hemisphere. The data was produced by NASA's Langley Research Center and is arranged in hourly netCDF-4 files.

Use Cases

• Modeling the Earth's diurnal radiation cycle based on hourly cloud property estimates.
• Analyzing cloud micro-physical properties over the Northern Hemisphere based on satellite-derived retrievals.
• Estimating radiative fluxes between CERES instrument measurements based on merged geostationary satellite data.
• Studying cloud property evolution and its impact on atmospheric albedo based on high-temporal-resolution imagery.

Strengths

• Data is derived from a well-documented NASA CERES project, a key component of the Earth Observing System.
• Provides high spatial resolution observations at 4 km (nadir), sub-sampled to 8 km.
• Offers high temporal resolution with hourly data files to capture the diurnal cycle.

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 stated as complete, limiting temporal coverage to the GOES-8 operational period.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Langley Research Center (LaRC) SatCORPS algorithms.

Collection Method

Derived from GOES-8 Imager data using SatCORPS algorithms to support the CERES project.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 22:09:34.103359; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Northern Hemisphere.