Coincident Views of Earth - CERES and MISR Data Available from the Atmospheric Sciences Data Center

The experiments on NASA's Terra spacecraft are focused on collecting global data sets needed to study the inter-relationships inherent in the Earth's coupled atmosphere-land-ocean system. Issues such as the Earth's energy balance, global cloudiness, the effects of atmospheric aerosols, and land surface changes can be addressed by coincident data from experiments such as the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) and the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR). An important feature of Terra is the ability to obtain data from multiple experiments looking at the same phenomena. CERES and MISR data available from the Atmospheric Sciences Data Center (ASDC) at NASA's Langley Research Center are used to demonstrate various complementary views of the Earth system. Examples are given of spatially and temporally coincident data covering phenomena such as large-scale weather systems, cloud patterns, aerosol concentrations from dust or fires, and seasonal variations in atmospheric and surface conditions over selected parts of the globe. CERES uses broadband radiometric measurements in three channels to provide both solar-reflected and Earth-emitted radiation throughout the atmosphere and, in combination with simultaneous measurements from instruments such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS), new information on cloud properties. MISR obtains precisely calibrated images taken simultaneously at nine different angles and four wavelengths (blue, green, red, and near-infrared) to provide data related to aerosols, clouds, and the land surface. Information about all of the available CERES and MISR data products, as well as related products, and how to obtain them can be found at the ASDC web site, http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov.