Earth Data School
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Full catalog/no2-monthly
no2-monthly·dataset

Monthly Nitrogen Dioxide Air Pollution

NO₂
atmosphere NASA VEDA COG
In plain English

What it measures. Maps levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), a pollutant from traffic and industry, where darker areas mean higher pollution and more activity. Blank spots usually mean clouds or snow blocked the view.

How it's made. Built from satellite measurements of nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere.

How & where you'd use it. Helps track air pollution tied to traffic, industry, and economic activity.

What's measured

no2monthly

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2016-01-01 → 2022-12-31
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsCOG

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

Darker colors indicate higher nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) levels and more activity. Lighter colors indicate lower levels of NO₂ and less activity. Missing pixels indicate areas of no data most likely associated with cloud cover or snow.

Get the data

veda_access.py
# NASA VEDA — open STAC API, anonymous (cloud-optimized GeoTIFFs)
from pystac_client import Client

cat = Client.open("https://openveda.cloud/api/stac")
col = cat.get_collection("no2-monthly")
items = list(col.get_items())          # browse the analysis-ready COGs
# open an asset with rioxarray:
# import rioxarray; da = rioxarray.open_rasterio(items[0].assets["cog_default"].href)
NASA VEDA is an open STAC catalog — browse and stream the cloud-optimized GeoTIFFs anonymously (no login).