SatCORPS CERES GEO: Himawari-8 Cloud and Radiation Properties for the Southern Hemisphere

CER_GEO_Ed4_HIM08_SH_V01.4 is a satellite data product from NASA's Langley Research Center providing cloud micro-physical and radiation properties. The data is derived hourly from the Himawari-8 geostationary satellite's Advanced Himawari Imager at 2 km nadir resolution, sub-sampled to 6 km. Version 1.4 uses the GMAO MERRA-2 reanalysis for atmospheric input.

Use Cases

• Modeling Earth's radiation budget based on derived cloud and radiation properties.
• Analyzing cloud microphysical property trends over the Southern Hemisphere using hourly data.
• Validating atmospheric reanalysis models using satellite-derived cloud retrievals.

Strengths

• Data is derived from the Advanced Himawari Imager on the Himawari-8 platform, a known satellite instrument.
• Observations are at a high spatial resolution of 2 km at nadir.
• Hourly temporal resolution provides detailed diurnal cycle information.

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 data.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Derived from Himawari-8 geostationary satellite imager data using algorithms supporting the CERES project.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 21:41:46.665773; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Southern Hemisphere.