Cloud Radiative Response from Six Cloud Products Using Cloud Radiative Kernels

This dataset contains monthly gridded cloud radiative response (CRR) anomaly fields derived from six MODIS/CERES cloud histogram products. The anomalies were calculated relative to a monthly climatology constructed from January 2003 through December 2022. For each product, monthly cloud-fraction histogram anomalies were multiplied by monthly cloud radiative kernels and summed over cloud-top-pressure and cloud-optical-thickness histogram bins to produce total CRR anomaly maps. Two netCDF files are provided. They have identical input cloud histogram products, climatology period, spatial grid, temporal coordinate, and variable structure, but differ in the cloud radiative kernel used: crr_from_6products_using_ceres_crks.nc set uses CERES FBCT cloud radiative kernels. crr_from_6products_using_ceres_crks.nc set uses Zelinka observational cloud radiative kernels. The files are intended for comparison of CRR anomaly patterns and trends across cloud histogram products and across kernel choices. They are also suitable for making monthly or trend maps of SW, LW, and net CRR anomalies.Products IncludedThe following six cloud histogram products are included as separate variables in each netCDF file:MYD08_M3 (2002.7 ~ 2025.12)MYD08+MOD08_M3 (2002.7 ~ 2025.12)MCD06COSP_M3_MODIS (2002.7 ~ 2025.12)CLDPROP_M3_MODIS_Aqua (2002.7 ~ 2025.12)CLDPROPCOSP_M3_MODIS_Aqua (2002.8 ~ 2025.12)CERES_FluxByCldTyp (2002.7 ~ 2023.2) Kernel Data SourceThe cloud radiative kernels used in this dataset were taken from the companion Zenodo dataset: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15937345 That dataset provides both Zelinka cloud radiative kernels (CRKs) and CERES FluxByCldTyp (FBCT) CRKs in a consistent format. The Zelinka CRKs were generated after interpolation in surface albedo space, where surface albedo was derived from CERES EBAF data. The CERES FBCT CRKs are based on CER_FluxByCldTyp-Month_Terra-Aqua-MODIS_Edition4A and are provided as monthly climatological and monthly time-varying kernels.The CRKs include cloud optical depth (COD), cloud top pressure (CTP), longitude, latitude, and monthly values. They are defined as the difference between clear-sky and overcast-sky radiative fluxes, divided by 100.The original Zelinka CRKs are from: Mark Zelinka. (2024). mzelinka/cloud-radiative-kernels: Sep 4, 2024 Release (v2.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13686878