SatCORPS CERES GEO Edition 4 Meteosat-09 Southern Hemisphere Version 1

Version 1.2 is identical to version 1.0 . No changes in retrieval algorithm. This data set is comprised of cloud micro-physical and radiation properties derived hourly from Meteosat-9 geostationary satellite imager data using the Langley Research Center (LARC) SATCORPS algorithms in support of the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) project.

The cloud micro-physical and radiation properties from each active geostationary satellite are merged together to create hourly global cloud properties that are used to estimate fluxes between CERES instrument measurements to account for the changing diurnal cycle. The data set is arranged as files for each hour and in netCDF-4 format. The observations are at 3-km resolution (at nadir) and are sub-sampled to 6 km.

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.