CERES GEO Edition 4: Hourly Cloud and Radiation Properties from Meteosat-11

SatCORPS CERES GEO Edition 4 Meteosat-11 Southern Hemisphere Version 1.2 is a data product from NASA's Langley Research Center. It comprises hourly cloud microphysical and radiation properties derived from the SEVIRI instrument on the Meteosat-11 geostationary satellite at 3 km resolution, sub-sampled to 6 km. The data supports the CERES project, a key component of the Earth Observing System, which has flown instruments on missions including TRMM, Terra, Aqua, Suomi NPP, and NOAA-20.

Use Cases

• Modeling Earth's radiation budget based on derived cloud and radiation properties.
• Analyzing diurnal cycles of cloud microphysics based on hourly temporal resolution.
• Studying Southern Hemisphere cloud properties based on geostationary satellite coverage.
• Validating climate models based on CERES program's radiometric measurements.

Strengths

• Data is derived from the SEVIRI instrument on the operational Meteosat-11 platform.
• Observations are provided at a high spatial resolution of 3 km at nadir.
• The dataset is part of the long-running CERES program, with instruments launched from 1997 to 2017.
• Data is arranged in hourly files, enabling analysis of 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 noted as 'in progress', indicating it may be incomplete or provisional.

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-11 geostationary satellite.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 21:40:38.484203; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Southern Hemisphere coverage from the Meteosat-11 geostationary orbit.