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Full catalog/GOCI_L2_OC
GOCI_L2_OC·v2014.0·dataset

Ocean color and tiny plants near Korea (GOCI)

COMS GOCI Level-2 Regional Ocean Color (OC) Data, version 2014.0
ocean NASA OB_CLOUD Level 2 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. A set of ocean-color measurements over the seas around Korea, including chlorophyll (a stand-in for tiny floating plants), water clarity, the color of light leaving the water, particle carbon content, and haze in the air.

How it's made. Produced from the GOCI instrument on the geostationary COMS satellite, with the raw readings calibrated and corrected for atmospheric effects to yield these derived water properties.

How & where you'd use it. Supports studies of light penetration, ocean productivity, and biological cycles in the regional waters it covers, useful for tracking blooms and water quality.

What's measured

Oceans › Ocean Optics › Ocean ColorOceans › Ocean Optics › ReflectanceAtmosphere › Aerosols › Aerosol Optical Depth/ThicknessAtmosphere › Aerosols › Aerosol Optical Depth/Thickness › Angstrom ExponentOceans › Ocean Optics › Chlorophyll › Chlorophyll ConcentrationOceans › Ocean Optics › Attenuation/TransmissionOceans › Ocean Chemistry › Organic CarbonOceans › Ocean Chemistry › Inorganic CarbonOceans › Ocean Optics › FluorescenceOceans › Ocean Optics › Photosynthetically Active Radiation

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2010-06-26 → 2021-03-31
  • Measured byCOMS (GOCI)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusCOMPLETE

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 Ocean Color (OC) data suite provides calibrated, atmospherically corrected ocean-optics measurements and derived biogeophysical products. This data suite includes the Apparent Optical Properties (AOP) and provides satellite-derived measures of the interaction between solar radiation and the upper ocean. AOPs are “apparent” because they depend not only on the inherent optical properties (IOPs) of seawater and its constituents but also on the ambient light field. These variables are critical for studying light penetration, primary productivity, and biogeochemical cycling. Geophysical variables in this suite include: - Kd_490 - Diffuse attenuation coefficient at 490 nm, KD2 algorithm (m⁻¹) - Rrs - Remote sensing reflectance (sr⁻¹) - angstrom - Aerosol Angstrom exponent, 443 to 865 nm - chlor_a - Chlorophyll Concentration, OCI Algorithm (mg m⁻³) - l2_flags - Level-2 Processing Flags - aot_865 - Aerosol optical thickness at 865 nm - chl_ocx - Chlorophyll Concentration, OC3 Algorithm (mg m⁻³) - poc - Particulate Organic Carbon, D. Stramski, 2007 (443/555 version) (mg m⁻³)

Get the data

goci_l2_oc_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="GOCI_L2_OC",
    version="2014.0",
    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 OB_CLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.