Validation of Geolocation of Measurements of the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) Scanning Radiometers aboard Three Spacecraft

Abstract

Abstract The Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument is a scanning radiometer for measuring Earth-emitted and -reflected solar radiation to understand Earth’s energy balance. One CERES instrument was placed into orbit aboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) in 1997; two were aboard the Terra spacecraft, launched in 1999; and two were aboard the Aqua spacecraft, launched in 2002. These measurements are used together with data from higher-resolution instruments to generate a number of data products. The nominal footprint size of the pixel at Earth’s surface is 16 km in the cross-scan direction and 23 km in the scan direction for the TRMM platform and 36 km in the cross-scan direction and 46 km in the scan direction for the Terra and Aqua platforms. It is required that the location on Earth of each pixel be known to 1–2 km to use the CERES data with the higher-resolution instruments on a pixel basis. A technique has been developed to validate the computed geolocation of the measurements by use of coastlines. Scenes are chosen in which the reflected solar radiation changes abruptly from the land surface to the darker ocean surface and the Earth-emitted radiation changes from the warm land to the cool ocean, or vice versa, so that scenes can be detected both day and night. The computed coastline location is then compared with the World Bank II map. The method has been applied to data from the three spacecraft and shows that the pixel geolocations are accurate to within 10% of the pixel size and that the geolocation is adequate for current scientific investigations.