CERES Bidirectional Scans Aqua FM3 Edition4

CER_BDS_Aqua-FM3_Edition4 is the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Bidirectional Scans (BDS) Aqua Flight Model 3 (FM3) Edition 4 data product, which is collected using the CERES-FM3 instrument on the Aqua platform. CER_BDS_Aqua-FM3_Edition4 includes geolocated and calibrated Top-of-Atmosphere (TOA) filtered radiances and other instrument data. Data collection for this product is ongoing.

Each CERES BDS data product contains twenty-four hours of Level-1B data for each CERES scanner instrument mounted on each spacecraft. BDS includes samples of normal and short Earth scan elevation profiles in fixed and rotating azimuth modes (including space, internal calibration, and solar calibration views). BDS contains Level-0 raw (unconverted) and the geolocated converted science and instrument data. BDS has additional data not found in the Level-0 input file, including converted satellite position and velocity data, celestial data, converted digital status data, and parameters used in the radiance count conversion equations.

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, 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 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.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field	Value
Maintainer	Earthdata Forum
Last Updated	August 18, 2026, 02:22 (UTC)
Created	April 1, 2025, 15:07 (UTC)
accessLevel	public
bureauCode	{026:00}
catalog_conformsTo	https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id	3659b09c-343c-4500-9ea7-577fa415bee0
harvest_source_id	b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title	Science Discovery Engine
identifier	10.5067/AQUA/CERES/BDS-FM3_L1B.004
license	https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified	2026-08-10T22:16:02Z
programCode	{026:000}
publisher	NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC
resource-type	Dataset
source_datajson_identifier	true
source_hash	a6614c2818d56aae09a29d5f9072288d7593b5646a28234c1704d6995347be62
source_schema_version	1.1
spatial	["CARTESIAN", [{"Boundary": {"Points": [{"Latitude": -90, "Longitude": -180}, {"Latitude": -90, "Longitude": 180}, {"Latitude": 90, "Longitude": 180}, {"Latitude": 90, "Longitude": -180}, {"Latitude": -90, "Longitude": -180}]}}]]
temporal	2002-06-18/2026-08-10
theme	{"Earth Science"}