Does the European Space Agency (ESA) use the CERES satellite, or is it exclusively operated by NASA?
Well first of all let me distinguish between the satellite and the instrument. CERES is an instrument (and also the name given to the NASA experiement on clouds) which is attached to the spacecraft (Aqua or Terra satellites). So in response to your question about the CERES instrument. CERES is an international effort however all of the funding to build and launch the instrument was contributed by NASA. The ESA, NASA counterpart in Europe, has its own satellites and instruments which sometimes measure similar phenomena. Presently they have a geostationary satellite looking down on one area of the globe which is measuring exactly the same properties that CERES is measuring. The difference is that CERES travels on a polar orbiting satellite which orbits the globe and does not stay in one fixed point. There are two international scientists that are part of the global CERES Team. One is from France and the other is from Belgium. The CERES data are also freely available to any scientist anyw
