CERES Monthly Daytime Mean Regionally Averaged Terra and Aqua TOA Fluxes and Associated Cloud Properties Stratified by Optical Depth and Effective Pressure Edition4A

CER_FluxByCldTyp-Month_Terra-Aqua-MODIS_Edition4A is the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Monthly Daytime Mean Regionally Averaged Terra and Aqua Top-of-Atmosphere (TOA) Fluxes and Associated Cloud Properties Stratified by Optical Depth and Effective Pressure Edition 4A data product. Data was collected using CERES Flight Model 1 (FM1), FM2, and Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on Terra and FM3, FM4, and MODIS on Aqua. Data collection for this product is ongoing.

CER_FluxByCldTyp-Month_Terra-Aqua-MODIS_Edition4A provides the monthly mean daytime CERES fluxes and CERES-Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud properties that have been spatially gridded into 1° regions along both the Terra and Aqua ground tracks where the TOA fluxes and cloud properties have been stratified by six cloud optical depth bins and seven cloud effective pressure layers. The CERES FluxByCldTyp-Month Edition4A product uses Single Scanner Footprint (SSF) Edition4A footprint data as input. Within each footprint, all 1-km pixel-level MODIS-retrieved cloud properties are stratified into three possible sub-footprint components: two cloud layers and a clear portion. For each sub-footprint component, the MODIS channel radiances are converted to broadband (BB) radiances. The CERES angular directional models are then applied to obtain BB fluxes. Each of the CERES sub-footprint cloud layers and associated fluxes are assigned to one of the 42 cloud types, similarly to the stratification process in the CldTypHist product. FluxByCloudTyp is an hourly instantaneous gridded daytime- only product with global extent. Each netCDF4 file covers a single day.

CERES is a key component of the Earth Observing System (EOS) program. The CERES instruments provide radiometric measurements of the Earth's atmosphere from three broadband channels. The CERES missions are a follow-on to the successful Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) mission. The first CERES instrument, protoflight model (PFM), was launched on November 27, 1997 as part of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). Two CERES instruments (FM1 and FM2) were launched into polar orbit on board the Earth Observing System (EOS) flagship Terra on December 18, 1999. Two additional CERES instruments (FM3 and FM4) were launched on board Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua on May 4, 2002. The CERES FM5 instrument was launched on board the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite on October 28, 2011. The newest CERES instrument (FM6) was launched on board the Joint Polar-Orbiting Satellite System 1 (JPSS-1) satellite, now called NOAA-20, on November 18, 2017.