NASA's Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) has released the Edition2B Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Single Scanner Footprint One Degree (SSF1deg) data product suite. These Level 3, gridded data products provide regional averages of CERES Top of Atmosphere (ToA) fluxes, aerosols, and clouds derived from the Visible-Infrared Imager-Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument. The SSF1deg product suite also incorporates meteorological information from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO)'s Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2) data product to help researchers understand how clouds and aerosols change the amount of radiation reflected or emitted by the Earth.
The CERES project is a key Earth Observing System (EOS) program component whose primary objective is to provide radiometric measurements of the Earth's atmosphere from broadband channels to monitor the Earth's radiation budget. The CERES Flight Model 5 (FM-5) and the Visible-Infrared Imager-Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instruments were launched on board the Suomi NPP satellite on October 28, 2011.
Data Products
- CER_SSF1deg-Hour_NPP-VIIRS: Hourly regional averages of TOA fluxes, clouds derived from a co-located imager and aerosols
- CER_SSF1deg-Day_NPP-VIIRS: Daily time-interpolated averages providing day, night (24-hour), and day-only cloud and flux properties.
- CER_SSF1deg-Month_NPP-VIIRS: Monthly time-interpolated averages of TOA fluxes, clouds, and aerosols.
- Temporal coverage: September 30, 2023 – Present
- Spatial coverage: Global
- File format: HDF4
- Processing level: Level 3
For data access and more information, visit the dataset landing pages at the:
- CER_SSF1deg-Month_NPP-VIIRS_Edition2B
- CER_SSF1deg-Day_NPP-VIIRS_Edition2B
- CER_SSF1deg-Hour_NPP-VIIRS_Edition2B
Access Methods
Users can access this data through:
- Earthdata Search:
CER_SSF1deg-Day_NPP-VIIRS_Edition2B
CER_SSF1deg-Hour_NPP-VIIRS_Edition2B
- CMR Virtual Directories:
CER_SSF1deg-Day_NPP-VIIRS_Edition2B
CER_SSF1deg-Hour_NPP-VIIRS_Edition2B
For questions about this data release or assistance with data access, please contact the ASDC User Services team or visit the Earthdata Forum.