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Full catalog/AIRSIL3MSOLR
AIRSIL3MSOLR·v6.1·dataset

Heat energy Earth radiates to space, monthly (Aqua)

Aqua AIRS Level 3 Spectral Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) Monthly
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 3 active
In plain English

What it measures. A monthly global map of outgoing longwave radiation, which is the heat energy Earth gives off to space, broken down by wavelength and provided for both clear-sky and all-sky conditions.

How it's made. Computed from infrared readings by the AIRS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite using a specialized algorithm, then averaged into a monthly 2-degree grid.

How & where you'd use it. Supports climate and energy-balance research by showing how much heat the planet sheds, a key piece of understanding global warming and cooling.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › OUTGOING LONGWAVE RADIATION

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2002-08-31 → ongoing
  • Measured byAqua (AIRS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Map air pollutants — NO₂, aerosols, ozone
  • Track greenhouse gases and Earth's energy budget
  • Feed weather and air-quality analysis
Official description

This L3 Spectral Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) is derived using the AIRS radiances to compute spectral fluxes based on an algorithm developed by Xianglei Huang at the University of Michigan. It uses data from the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS) instrument on the EOS-Aqua spacecraft. The Aqua AIRS Huang Level-3 Spectral OLR product contains OLR parameters derived from the AIRS version 6 data: all-sky and clear-sky OLR both spectrally resolved at 10 cm-1 bandwidth and integrated to a single value per grid square. This is monthly product on a 2x2 degree latitude/longitude grid.

Get the data

airsil3msolr_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="AIRSIL3MSOLR",
    version="6.1",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from GES_DISC
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.