This project creates an interactive 3D visualization of NASA CERES EBAF climate data. The goal is to make the spatial pattern of cloud radiative effects easier to explore than in a static map. Instead of showing the data as a flat world projection, the code converts the gridded CERES dataset into a rotatable, zoomable globe.
The visualization focuses on surface net cloud radiative effect, often abbreviated as surface net CRE. In simple terms, this tells us how much clouds change the net radiation balance at the Earth’s surface. Negative values mean clouds reduce the amount of net energy reaching or remaining at the surface, which can be interpreted as a cooling effect. Positive values mean clouds increase the net surface energy balance, which can be interpreted as a warming effect.
What the analysis calculates
The analysis reads a NASA CERES EBAF NetCDF file and calculates surface net cloud radiative effect from two variables:
surface net CRE = sfc_net_tot_all_mon - sfc_net_tot_clr_t_mon
The first variable, sfc_net_tot_all_mon, is the monthly all-sky net surface radiation. “All-sky” means the observed or estimated radiation balance including clouds.
The second variable, sfc_net_tot_clr_t_mon, is the monthly clear-sky net surface radiation for the total region. “Clear-sky” means the radiation balance estimated under cloud-free conditions.
By subtracting clear-sky radiation from all-sky radiation, the code isolates the effect of clouds on the surface radiation balance.
Analysis period is:
March 2000 to November 2025
This gives a 25.7-year average, matching the period commonly used in earlier CERES-based cloud radiative effect analyses.
Why use CERES EBAF?
CERES EBAF is a NASA satellite-based climate dataset designed to describe the Earth’s radiation budget. It provides monthly global fields on a regular latitude-longitude grid. This makes it suitable for analysing how radiative fluxes vary across the planet.
The EBAF product is especially useful because it is processed to be globally complete and suitable for climate-scale analysis. It contains both top-of-atmosphere and surface radiation fields, including all-sky and clear-sky quantities. This makes it possible to derive cloud radiative effects in a consistent global framework.
Why area weighting matters
A simple arithmetic average of latitude-longitude grid cells would give too much weight to high latitudes, because grid cells near the poles represent smaller physical areas than grid cells near the equator.
To avoid this, the analysis weights each grid cell by the cosine of its latitude. This approximates the actual surface area represented by each grid cell. As a result, the global, hemispheric and zonal averages better represent the real Earth surface.
The main idea
The main idea behind this 3D globe is to make a complex climate dataset easier to inspect visually. CERES EBAF data is usually analysed with scientific tools and plotted as static maps. That works well for technical analysis, but it is less intuitive for general exploration.
It preserves the natural shape of the Earth better than a flat projection. It allows the reader to rotate the planet and focus on specific regions. It also makes the data more accessible for blog readers, because they can interact with the result directly in the browser.
Credits: The idea for this 3D Globe has been given by Willis Eshenbach in this article: Clouds From Both Sides Now – Watts Up With That?