SatCORPS CERES GEO: Hourly Cloud and Radiation Properties from GOES-9

Hourly cloud microphysical and radiation properties derived from GOES-9 geostationary satellite imager data at 4 km nadir resolution, subsampled to 8 km. The data set is arranged as hourly files in netCDF-4 format and was produced by NASA's Langley Research Center using SatCORPS algorithms for the CERES project. CERES instruments, first launched in 1997, are a key component of NASA's Earth Observing System, succeeding the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment.

Use Cases

• Modeling the Earth's diurnal radiation cycle based on hourly cloud property estimates.
• Analyzing cloud microphysical properties over the Southern Hemisphere based on geostationary satellite retrievals.
• Validating climate models using derived broadband radiometric measurements of the atmosphere.
• Studying temporal changes in cloud properties to support the CERES project's flux estimation between instrument measurements.

Strengths

• Data is derived from a specific, well-documented satellite platform (GOES-9) and instrument (GOES-I-M Imager).
• Provides high spatial resolution observations at 4 km (nadir), subsampled to 8 km.
• Supports a long-running NASA mission (CERES) with instruments launched from 1997 to 2017.

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-9 operational period.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Derived using SatCORPS algorithms from GOES-9 geostationary satellite imager data.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 21:41:42.171161; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Southern Hemisphere