CERES new generation of radiation budget data: an overview

The new CERES data products represent a new generation of climate data for the Earth's radiation budget. These data products integrate information from up to 11 instruments on 7 spacecraft, 4-D assimilation weather data, and a range of surface property maps. Radiative fluxes are estimated from the surface of the earth, through the atmosphere to the top of atmosphere (TOA). The large number of data sources integrated are required to handle the 8-dimensional sampling required for radiation budget estimates. The new data product capabilities and accuracies will be summarized at a range of time and space scales appropriate to climate research. Comparisons will be made to the more traditional ERBE, ISCCP, and SRB data products. In general these new data are a factor of 2 to 10 more accurate than previous products, are more highly integrated, and are capable of new approaches to studying key climate issues such as the cloud feedback mechanisms that drive our current uncertainty in climate sensitivity. Key future applications will include merging with the nadir viewing Cloudsat cloud radar and CALIPSO cloud lidar data planned to fly in formation with the CERES instruments on the Aqua spacecraft. This future combination will provide a new capability to define the vertical layering of aerosols and clouds within the atmospheric column.