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Full catalog/CER_SSF_NOAA20-FM6-VIIRS
CER_SSF_NOAA20-FM6-VIIRS·vEdition1B·dataset

Sunlight and heat energy, clouds, and haze (NOAA-20)

CERES Single Scanner Footprint (SSF) TOA/Surface Fluxes, Clouds and Aerosols NOAA20-FM6-VIIRS Edition1B
atmosphere NASA LARC_CLOUD Level 2 active netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. How much sunlight and heat energy leave the top of Earth's atmosphere, together with the cloud and haze conditions present, captured one hour at a time for each instrument pass.

How it's made. Combines energy measurements from the CERES instrument on the NOAA-20 satellite with detailed cloud and aerosol scene information from the higher-resolution VIIRS imager.

How & where you'd use it. A key input for studying Earth's energy balance, how clouds and particles affect that balance, and how the planet gains and loses heat.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLSATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATIONATMOSPHERE › CLOUDSATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD MICROPHYSICS › CLOUD OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESSATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD RADIATIVE TRANSFER › CLOUD EMISSIVITYSPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › LIDAR › LIDAR BACKSCATTERSPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › LIDAR › LIDAR DEPOLARIZATION RATIOATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD BASE HEIGHTATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIESATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › OUTGOING LONGWAVE RADIATIONATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › RADIATIVE FLUXATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD BASE PRESSUREATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD TOP PRESSUREATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD FRACTION

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2018-05-01 → ongoing
  • Measured byJPSS-1 (CERES-FM6, VIIRS) · NOAA-20 (CERES-FM6, VIIRS)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusACTIVE

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_SSF_NOAA20-FM6_Edition1B data are Clouds, and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) observed Top of Atmosphere (TOA) fluxes, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) clouds and aerosols, and parameterized surface fluxes. Data collection for this product is in progress. The TOA/Single Scanner Footprint (SSF) product contains one hour of instantaneous CERES data for a single scanner instrument. SSF combines instantaneous CERES data with scene information from a higher-resolution imager such as a Visible/Infrared Scanner (VIRS) on Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) or MODIS on Terra and Aqua or Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on SUOMI National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) and NOAA-20. 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, 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. 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 TOA fluxes based on the imager-defined scene. These TOA fluxes are used to estimate surface fluxes. Only footprints with adequate imager coverage are included on CER_SSF_NOAA20-FM6-VIIRS_Edition1B, which is much less than the full set of footprints on the CERES ES-8 product. CERES is a key Earth Observing System (EOS) program component. The CERES instruments provide radiometric measurements of the Earth's atmosphere from three broadband channels. The CERES missions follow the successful Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) mission. The first CERES instrument (PFM) was launched on November 27, 1997, as part of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). Two CERES instruments (Flight Model 1 (FM1) and FM2) were launched into polar orbit on board the EOS flagship Terra on December 18, 1999. Two additional CERES instruments (FM3 and FM4) were launched on board EOS Aqua on May 4, 2002. The CERES instrument (FM5) was launched on board the S-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 on November 18, 2017.

Get the data

cer_ssf_noaa20-fm6-viirs_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="CER_SSF_NOAA20-FM6-VIIRS",
    version="Edition1B",
    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.