SatCORPS CERES GEO: Cloud and Radiation Properties from Meteosat-9

SatCORPS CERES GEO Edition 4 data provides hourly cloud micro-physical and radiation properties derived from the SEVIRI instrument on the Meteosat-9 geostationary satellite. The dataset is produced by NASA's Langley Research Center in support of the CERES project, using the GMAO MERRA-2 reanalysis for atmospheric input. Observations are at a 3 km resolution at nadir and are sub-sampled to 6 km, arranged in hourly netCDF-4 files.

Use Cases

• Modeling Earth's radiation budget based on derived cloud and radiation properties.
• Analyzing cloud micro-physical property trends over the Northern Hemisphere based on hourly geostationary data.
• Validating atmospheric models using cloud retrievals informed by the MERRA-2 reanalysis.
• Studying diurnal cycles of cloud properties based on the dataset's hourly temporal resolution.

Strengths

• Data is derived from a specific, named satellite instrument (SEVIRI on Meteosat-9).
• Uses a specific, documented atmospheric reanalysis (GMAO MERRA-2) for input.
• Provides observations at a high spatial resolution (3 km at nadir).
• Offers a high temporal resolution with data arranged in hourly files.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Spatial coverage is limited to the Northern Hemisphere.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Derived from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) on the Meteosat-9 geostationary satellite.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 21:41:37.119675; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Northern Hemisphere.