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Full catalog/GloSSAC
GloSSAC·v2.23·dataset

Long-term record of haze high in the atmosphere

Global Space-based Stratospheric Aerosol Climatology Version 2.23
atmosphere NASA LARC_CLOUD Level 3 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. A 45-year record of fine particles (aerosols) high in the stratosphere, focused on how much they block and scatter light at specific wavelengths.

How it's made. Stitched together from several space-based instruments (the SAGE series, OSIRIS, and CALIPSO) plus ground, aircraft, and balloon measurements to fill gaps and create a continuous global climatology.

How & where you'd use it. Useful for studying long-term changes in stratospheric haze, including the effects of volcanic eruptions, and for climate research.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLSATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › PARTICULATE MATTERATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESSATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL PARTICLE PROPERTIESATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL EXTINCTIONATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL BACKSCATTERATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › SULFATE PARTICLESATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › DUST/ASH/SMOKE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1979-01-01 → 2024-12-31
  • Measured byERBS (SAGE III) · CALIPSO (CALIOP) · UARS (CLAES) · ISS
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusCOMPLETE

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

The Global Space-based Stratospheric Aerosol Climatology, or GloSSAC, is a 45-year climatology of stratospheric aerosol properties focused on extinction coefficient measurements by the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) series of instruments through mid-2005 and later from mid-2017 and on the Optical Spectrograph and InfraRed Imager System (OSIRIS) and the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) data thereafter. Data from other space instruments and from ground-based, air and balloon borne instruments to fill in key gaps in the data set. The end result is a global and gap-free data set focused on aerosol extinction coefficient at 525 and 1020 nm and other parameters on an ‘as available’ basis.

Get the data

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="GloSSAC",
    version="2.23",
    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 LARC_CLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.