CERES Single Scanner Footprint (SSF) TOA/Surface Fluxes, Clouds and Aerosols Aqua-FM4 Edition4A

CER_SSF_Aqua-FM4-MODIS_Edition4A is the CERES Single Scanner Footprint (SSF) TOA/Surface Fluxes, Clouds and Aerosols Aqua-Flight Model 4 (FM4) Edition4A data product. This data was obtained from the CERES-FM4 Instrument on the Aqua platform. Data collection for this product is complete.
The Single Scanner Footprint (SSF) TOA/Surface Fluxes, Clouds and Aerosols product contains one hour of instantaneous Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) data for a single scanner instrument. The SSF combines instantaneous CERES data with scene information from a higher-resolution imager such as Visible/Infrared Scanner (VIRS) on TRMM, Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on Terra and Aqua, and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on Suomi-NPP. Scene identification and cloud properties are defined at the higher imager resolution and these data are averaged over the larger CERES footprint.
For each CERES footprint, the SSF contains the number of cloud layers and for each layer the cloud amount, height, temperature, pressure, optical depth, emissivity, ice and liquid water path, and water particle size. The SSF also contains the CERES filtered radiances for the total, shortwave (SW), and window (WN) channels and the unfiltered SW, longwave (LW), and WN radiances. The SW, LW, and WN radiances at spacecraft altitude are converted to Top-of-the-Atmosphere (TOA) fluxes based on the imager-defined scene. These TOA fluxes are used to estimate surface fluxes. On the SSF, only footprints with adequate imager coverage are included, which are much less than the full set of footprints on the CERES ES-8 product.
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.