The Fast Longwave and Shortwave Flux (FLASHFlux) Data Product: Single-Scanner Footprint Fluxes

Abstract

AbstractThe Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy Systems (CERES) project utilizes radiometric measurements taken aboard the Terra and Aqua spacecrafts to derive the world-class data products needed for climate research. Achieving the exceptional fidelity of the CERES data products, however, requires a considerable amount of processing to assure quality and to verify accuracy and precision, which results in the CERES data being released more than 6 months after the satellite observations. For most climate studies such delays are of little consequence; however, there are a significant number of near–real time uses for CERES data products. The Fast Longwave and Shortwave Radiative Flux (FLASHFlux) data product was therefore developed to provide a rapid release version of the CERES results, which could be made available to the research and applications communities within 1 week of the satellite observations by exchanging some accuracy for speed. FLASHFlux has both achieved this 1-week processing objective and demonstrated the ability to provide remarkably good agreement when compared with the CERES data products for both the instantaneous single-scanner footprint (SSF) fluxes and the time- and space-averaged (TISA) fluxes. This paper describes the methods used to expedite the production of the FLASHFlux SSF fluxes by utilizing data from the CERES and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instruments, as well as other meteorological sources. This paper also reports on the validation of the FLASHFlux SSF results against ground-truth measurements and the intercomparison of FLASHFlux and CERES SSF results. A complementary paper will discuss the production and validation of the FLASHFlux TISA fluxes.