CERES Single Scanner Footprint (SSF) TOA/Surface Fluxes, Clouds and Aerosols Aqua-FM3 Edition4A

CER_SSF_Aqua-FM3-MODIS_Edition4A is the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Single Scanner Footprint (SSF) Top-of-the-Atmosphere (TOA)/Surface Fluxes, Clouds and Aerosols Aqua-Flight Model 3 (FM3) Edition4A data product, which was collected using the CERES-FM3 instrument on the Aqua platform. Data collection for this product is in progress.

CERES SSF TOA/Surface Fluxes are data for a single scanner instrument. The SSF combines instantaneous CERES data with scene information from a higher-resolution imager such as Visible/Infrared Scanner (VIRS) on the Tropical Measuring Mission (TRMM), Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on Terra and Aqua, and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on Suomi- National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP). Scene identification and cloud properties are defined at the higher imager resolution, and these data are averaged over the larger CERES footprint. For each CERES footprint, the SSF contains the number of cloud layers and, for each layer, the cloud amount, height, temperature, pressure, optical depth, emissivity, ice and liquid water path, and water particle size. The SSF also contains the CERES-filtered radiances for the total, shortwave (SW), and window (WN) channels and the unfiltered SW, longwave (LW), and WN radiances. The SW, LW, and WN radiances at spacecraft altitude are converted to TOA fluxes based on the imager-defined scene. These TOA fluxes are used to estimate surface fluxes. On the SSF, only footprints with adequate imager coverage are included, which is much less than the complete set of footprints on the CERES ES-8 product.

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	September 8, 2026, 02:08 (UTC)
Created	April 1, 2025, 15:09 (UTC)
accessLevel	public
bureauCode	{026:00}
catalog_conformsTo	https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id	e8a02724-6b4b-4e5b-85b5-0b890e9220cd
harvest_source_id	b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title	Science Discovery Engine
identifier	10.5067/AQUA/CERES/SSF-FM3_L2.004A
license	https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified	2026-08-31T22:16:00Z
programCode	{026:000}
publisher	NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC
resource-type	Dataset
source_datajson_identifier	true
source_hash	5dbc8a70618ecd1cc6009b99b00e34cf21980aa892d2214707aac6d4bcd001bd
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	2002-07-03/2026-08-31
theme	{"Earth Science"}