The Incoming Solar Flux (Monthly, Energy Balanced and Filled) layer shows the downwelling broadband shortwave radiant energy from the sun (irradiance), transferred across a unit area in unit time (W/m^-2), at the top of the atmosphere (TOA - 20 km altitude). More simply, it is the incident sunlight to Earth’s atmosphere (defined as positive). The CERES EBAF Edition 2 and 3 products use solar irradiance calculated using daily measurements provided by the Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) observatory. These daily measurements are intended to reflect natural variability of the sun and account for the 11-year (sunspot) solar cycle. A mean solar constant of 1361 W/m^-2 is used, which differs from other CERES Edition2 and ERBE products.

The CERES Energy Balanced and Filled (EBAF) layers are derived from CERES SYN1Deg products, and provide monthly mean radiative fluxes corresponding to collection either at the Earth’s surface (EBAF-Surface) or top-of-the-atmosphere (EBAF-TOA). EBAF-products were designed for climate model evaluation, estimating the Earth's global mean energy budget, and to infer meridional heat transport. For some climate modelers, the products address the need for a net imbalance constrained to the ocean heat storage term.

The Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) instruments are a collection of instruments carried on different satellites, the first launched in 1999 (Terra) as a follow-on to the successful Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) mission, and as a flagship component of the Earth Observing System (EOS) program. The second satellite (Aqua) was launched in 2002. There are two identical CERES instruments aboard both the Terra and Aqua satellites, that measure the Earth's total radiation budget and provide cloud property estimates that enable scientists to assess clouds' roles in radiative fluxes from the surface to the top of the atmosphere. One of the instruments operates in a cross-track scan mode and the other in a biaxial scan mode. The cross-track mode data is what is used to align the CERES measurements with ERBE and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), essentially extending the data record.

The CERES Incoming Solar Flux (Monthly, Energy Balanced and Filled) layer is available from the CERES instruments on the Terra satellite. The sensor resolution is 1 degree, imagery resolution is 2 km, and the temporal resolution is monthly.

Data product: CERES_EBAF-SFC_Edition4.0