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Full catalog/CYGNSS_L3_MICROPLASTIC_V3.2
CYGNSS_L3_MICROPLASTIC_V3.2·v3.2·dataset

Tiny plastic bits floating in the ocean (CYGNSS)

CYGNSS Level 3 Ocean Microplastic Concentration Version 3.2
ocean NASA POCLOUD Level 3 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Daily maps estimating how many tiny plastic particles are floating in the ocean, given as a number density per square kilometer.

How it's made. Derived from the CYGNSS satellites, which measure ocean surface roughness from reflected GPS signals; the plastic amounts are estimated indirectly from a link between surface roughness and wind, not measured directly.

How & where you'd use it. Offers a broad, experimental look at where ocean microplastics may concentrate; the makers caution that other things which smooth the sea surface — algal blooms, oil spills, unusual weather — can throw off the estimates.

What's measured

OCEANS › WATER QUALITY › SEA SURFACE CONTAMINANTS › MICROPLASTIC CONCENTRATION

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2018-08-01 → ongoing
  • Measured byCYGNSS (DDMI)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -37.4, 180, 37.4
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Watch sea-surface temperature and marine heatwaves
  • Spot algal blooms and ocean-colour shifts
  • Support fisheries and coastal monitoring
Official description

The CYGNSS L3 Ocean Microplastic Concentration V3.2 dataset is provided by the CYGNSS Science Team of the University of Michigan. CYGNSS was launched on 15 December 2016, it is a NASA Earth System Science Pathfinder Mission that was launched with the purpose of collecting the first frequent space‐based measurements of surface wind speeds in the inner core of tropical cyclones. Originally made up of a constellation of eight micro-satellites, the observatories provide nearly gap-free Earth coverage using an orbital inclination of approximately 35° from the equator, with a mean (i.e., average) revisit time of seven hours and a median revisit time of three hours. This dataset contains the version 3.2 CYGNSS Level 3 ocean microplastic concentration data record, which provides daily netCDF files, each file containing a gridded map of microplastic number density (#/km^2). Microplastic concentration number density is indirectly estimated by an empirical relationship between ocean surface roughness and wind speed (Evans and Ruf, 2021). User caution is advised in regions containing independent, non-correlative factors affecting ocean surface roughness, such as anomalous atmospheric conditions within the Intertropical Convergence Zone, biogenic surfactants (such as algal blooms), oil spills, etc. This product reports microplastic concentration on a daily temporal and 0.25-degree latitude/longitude spatial grid with 30-day, 1 degree latitude/longitude feature resolution, as constrained by the binning and spatial temporal averaging of the Mean Square Slope (MSS) anomaly (i.e., difference between measured and predicted ocean surface roughness for a given wind speed). Version 3.2 uses CYGNSS MSS measurements that are derived from updated v3.2 Level 1 scattering cross section data and has updated the parameterizations in the data processing algorithm to use v3.2 data correctly.

Get the data

cygnss_l3_microplastic_v3.2_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="CYGNSS_L3_MICROPLASTIC_V3.2",
    version="3.2",
    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 POCLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.