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Full catalog/CERES_EBAF
CERES_EBAF·vEdition4.2.1·dataset

Earth's energy in and out, top and surface, monthly (CERES)

CERES Energy Balanced and Filled (EBAF) TOA and Surface Monthly means data in netCDF Edition 4.2.1
atmosphere NASA LARC_CLOUD Level 4 active netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Earth's energy budget — how much sunlight comes in and how much energy goes back out, both at the top of the atmosphere and at the surface — as monthly averages, including the warming or cooling effect of clouds.

How it's made. Built from the CERES instruments on NASA's Terra, Aqua, and NOAA-20 satellites, combined with cloud data and weather models and balanced against ocean heat storage to fill gaps.

How & where you'd use it. A key dataset for climate science, used to track how Earth's energy balance is changing and how clouds affect warming.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD MICROPHYSICS › CLOUD OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESSATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › SOLAR RADIATIONATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › OUTGOING LONGWAVE RADIATIONATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › RADIATIVE FLUXATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD FRACTIONATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › RADIATIVE FORCINGATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › INCOMING SOLAR RADIATIONATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › SOLAR IRRADIANCEATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › NET RADIATIONATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › LONGWAVE RADIATIONATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › SHORTWAVE RADIATION

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2000-03-01 → ongoing
  • Measured byTerra (CERES-FM1, CERES-FM2) · Aqua (CERES-FM3, CERES-FM4) · NOAA-20 (CERES-FM6)
  • Processing levelLevel 4
  • 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

CERES_EBAF_Edition4.2.1 is the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Energy Balanced and Filled (EBAF) Top-of-Atmosphere (TOA) and surface monthly means data in netCDF format Edition 4.2.1 data product. Data was collected using the CERES Scanner instruments on the Terra, Aqua, and NOAA-20 platforms for various periods. Data collection for this product is ongoing. CERES_EBAF_Edition4.2.1 data are monthly and climatological averages of TOA clear-sky (spatially complete) fluxes and all-sky fluxes, where the TOA net flux is constrained to the ocean heat storage. It also provides computed monthly mean surface radiative fluxes consistent with the CERES EBAF-TOA product and some basic cloud properties derived from colocated imagers. Cloud Radiative Effects are supplied at the TOA and surface, as determined using a cloud-free profile in the Fu-Liou Radiative Transfer Model (RTM). Observed fluxes are obtained using cloud properties derived from narrow-band imagers onboard both EOS Terra and Aqua satellites and NOAA-20, as well as geostationary satellites, to model the diurnal cycle of clouds. The computations are also based on meteorological assimilation data from the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) Versions 5.4.1 models. Unlike other CERES Level 3 clear-sky regional data sets that contain clear-sky data gaps, the clear-sky fluxes in the EBAF-TOA product are regionally complete. The EBAF-TOA product is the CERES project's best estimate of the fluxes based on all available satellite platforms and input data. 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 follow the successful Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) mission. The first CERES instrument, the 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 the 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.

Get the data

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="CERES_EBAF",
    version="Edition4.2.1",
    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.