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Full catalog/CER_GEO_Ed4_HIM08_NH
CER_GEO_Ed4_HIM08_NH·vV01.4·dataset

Cloud and energy data, Northern Hemisphere (Himawari-8)

SatCORPS CERES GEO Edition 4 Himawari-8 Northern Hemisphere Version 1.4
atmosphere NASA LARC_CLOUD Level 2 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Hourly cloud properties and Earth's radiant energy over the Northern Hemisphere, including cloud microphysics and how clouds and the surface reflect and emit energy.

How it's made. Derived from the Advanced Himawari Imager on Japan's Himawari-8 geostationary satellite using NASA Langley's cloud-retrieval algorithms, provided hourly at about 6-kilometer detail.

How & where you'd use it. Supports studies of clouds and Earth's energy balance, helping scientists understand how clouds influence how much energy the planet absorbs and releases.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › CLOUDSATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD MICROPHYSICS › CLOUD OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESSATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD BASE HEIGHTATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD MIDLAYER TEMPERATUREATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD HEIGHTATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIESATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD BASE PRESSUREATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD TOP PRESSUREATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD MICROPHYSICS › CLOUD LIQUID WATER/ICEATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD TOP HEIGHTATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD TOP TEMPERATUREATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD BASE TEMPERATURE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2018-04-30 → 2022-12-01
  • Measured byHimawari-8 (AHI)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Map air pollutants — NO₂, aerosols, ozone
  • Track greenhouse gases and Earth's energy budget
  • Feed weather and air-quality analysis
Official description

CER_GEO_Ed4_HIM08_NH_V01.4 is the Satellite Cloud and Radiation Property retrieval System (SatCORPS) Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Geostationary Satellite (GEO) Edition 4 Himawari-8 over the Northern Hemisphere (NH) Version 1.4 data product. Data was collected using the Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) Instrument on the Himawari-8 platform. Note: Version 1.4 uses the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2) reanalysis for atmospheric input; Version 1.2 used GMAO's GEOS-5.4.1. No changes have been made to the cloud retrieval algorithm. This data set comprises cloud micro-physical and radiation properties derived hourly from Himawari-8 geostationary satellite imager data using the Langley Research Center (LaRC) SATCORPS algorithms supporting the CERES project. The data set is arranged as files for each hour in netCDF-4 format. The observations are at 2 km resolution (at nadir) and are sub-sampled to 6 km (taking every third line and pixel).

Get the data

cer_geo_ed4_him08_nh_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="CER_GEO_Ed4_HIM08_NH",
    version="V01.4",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from LARC_CLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.