CERES Project Keyword description

[ASDC - ingridgs]

Hello,

We consulted with the CERES team, and they would like to update the CERES Project Description.

New Description:
The Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) experiment is one of the highest-priority scientific satellite instruments developed for NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS) and continues through the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). CERES products include both solar-reflected and Earth-emitted radiation from the top of the atmosphere to the Earth's surface. Cloud properties are determined using simultaneous measurements by other co-located imagers, such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). Analyses of the CERES data, which build upon the foundation laid by previous missions such as the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE), lead to a better understanding of the role of clouds and the energy cycle in global climate change. CERES instruments were launched aboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) in November 1997, followed by two on the EOS Terra satellite in December 1999, two on the EOS Aqua satellite in May 2002, one on the Suomi-National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite in October 2011, and one on the JPSS-1 (now NOAA-20) satellite in November 2017. Flying multiple satellites concurrently is desired to reduce the risk of a climate data record gap and provide adequate temporal sampling since clouds and radiative fluxes vary throughout the day. Having two instruments on one satellite allows operating one in cross-track mode for climate products and the other in a rotating azimuth plane to develop angular distribution models to adjust for anisotropy or allow validation with other instruments. The CERES instrument contains three detectors: one that measures the total returned energy (0.3 - 200 m), another that captures shortwave energy (0.3 – 5.0 m), and the last that measures infrared energy in the window channel (8 – 12 m). The last CERES instrument, FM6 on NOAA-20, includes a longwave detector (5 - 35 m) instead of the window channel. The CERES instruments are substantially improved over the ERBE instruments, showing lower noise, improved ties to the ground calibration in absolute terms, and smaller fields of view. Calibration stability is typically better than 0.2% for all CERES instruments. Onboard calibration sources provide traceability to the prelaunch calibration of the CERES sensors tied to the International Temperature Scale of 1990.
For more information, please visit the CERES website: https://ceres.larc.nasa.gov or the Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) website: https://asdc.larc.nasa.gov/project/CERES.