Evaluating Surface Flux Results from FLASHFlux Version 3A

The Fast Longwave and Shortwave Radiative Flux (FLASHFlux) data product was developed to provide a rapid release version of the Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) results, which could be made available to the research and applications communities within one week of the satellite observations by exchanging some accuracy for speed of processing. Unlike standard CERES products, FLASHFlux does not maintain a long-term consistent dataset. Therefore the latest algorithms changes and input data can be incorporated into processing. FLASHFlux released Version3A as of January 2013 which include the latest meteorlogical product from Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO), GEOS FP-IT (5.9.1), the latest spectral response functions and gains for the CERES instruments, and aerosol climatology based on the latest MATCH data. Some algorithm changes were made in the cloud transmission coefficient and Rayleigh attenuation for the shortwave flux computation. Typically FLASHFlux does not reprocess when a new version is released. However, in order to investigate the effects of the changes in algorithms and input data, the year of 2012 was processed with both Version2H and Version3A. The Single Scanner Footprint (SSF) surface flux results, from this overlap year have been compared to the ground-based measurements. The effects of the changes on the surface fluxes were evaluated. The improvement that made the largest change was from the use aerosol climatology from MATCH in place of the WCP aerosols in the shortwave surface flux. The newest Version3A shows improvement in surface fluxes when compared to ground-based measurements.