SatCORPS CERES GEO: Cloud and Radiation Properties from Meteosat-8

SatCORPS CERES GEO Edition 4 data provides hourly cloud micro-physical and radiation properties derived from the SEVIRI instrument on the Meteosat-8 geostationary satellite. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration produced this version, which uses the MERRA-2 reanalysis for atmospheric input. Observations are at 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 Southern Hemisphere.
• Validating atmospheric models using the MERRA-2 reanalysis input data.
• Studying diurnal cycles of cloud properties from hourly geostationary data.

Strengths

• Data is derived from a geostationary satellite, providing consistent hourly observations.
• Observations have a spatial resolution of 3 km at nadir.
• Version 1.4 uses the MERRA-2 reanalysis for atmospheric input, a specific model update.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Derived from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) Instrument on the Meteosat-8 platform using Langley Research Center SatCORPS algorithms.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 22:09:07.367011; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Southern Hemisphere