Aerosol, cloud and radiation measurements from Earth observing satellites

The Atmospheric Science Data Center at NASA Langley Research Center processes, archives, and distributes data relating to Earth's atmospheric radiation, clouds, and aerosols. Several data products will be presented that provide global observations of radiation and clouds properties for climate monitoring and climate change studies.

International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) focuses on the distribution and variation of cloud radiative properties to improve the understanding of the effects of clouds on climate, the radiation budget, and the long-term global hydrologic cycle. The ISCCP Project was established in 1982 as the first project of the World Climate Research Programme (WCP-2) to collect and analyze satellite radiance measurements to infer the global distribution of cloud radiative properties and their diurnal and seasonal variations.

The Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) experiment is one of the highest priority scientific satellite instruments developed for NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS). The first CERES instrument was launched in November 1997 on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Satellite. CERES instruments are also currently flying on the EOS Terra and Aqua satellites. These two sets of instruments provide long term, overlapping measurements of broadband shortwave, longwave and net radiative fluxes for clear sky and cloudy conditions.

Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) data products contain aerosol and cloud measurements from regional and global scale environments. MISR was successfully launched into orbit aboard the Terra spacecraft on December 18, 1999. MISR measurements are designed to improve our understanding of the Earth's environment and climate with data collected using nine cameras, at four different angles and four wavelengths (red, blue, green, near-infrared).

Information about these and other data holdings at the NASA LaRC ASDC is available at http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov.