CER_SSF_NPP-FM5-VIIRS_Edition2B is the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) Single Scanner Footprint (SSF) Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Level 2 observed Top of Atmosphere (ToA) broadband radiances and fluxes Edition2B data product. The CERES instrument, Flight Model (FM) 5, was launched on board the Suomi NPP satellite on October 28, 2011. The data product begins September 30, 2023, and is in progress. The CERES footprint has a nominal 24-kilometer (km) resolution at nadir and a swath width of approximately 3,000 km. The product provides global coverage over a day.

The SSF granule contains instantaneous CERES FM5 Earth viewing footprints filtered radiances for the total, shortwave (SW), and window (WN) broadband channels and the unfiltered SW, LW (determined from the difference between total and SW), and WN channel radiances. The SW, LW, and WN radiances at spacecraft altitude are converted to Top of Atmosphere (ToA) fluxes based on the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) imager-defined scene. These ToA fluxes are used to estimate surface fluxes. The VIIRS radiances are used with CERES-specific cloud masks and retrievals to provide pixel-level cloud properties, and this data is averaged over the larger CERES footprint for up to two distinct non-overlapping cloud layers. Each cloud layer has properties such as amount, height, temperature, pressure, optical depth, emissivity, phase, water path, and water particle size. Each footprint contains the VIIRS aerosol optical depth and imager radiance values. Only footprints with adequate imager coverage are included on the SSF product, much less than the full set of footprints that can be found on the CERES ERBE-like Instantaneous TOA Estimates (ES8) product.

The product is distributed in hourly network Common Data Format (netCDF) 4 files, each containing approximately six-tenths of an orbit.