Which way the OCO-2 satellite was pointing (v11.2)
What it measures. The exact pointing angles of the OCO-2 satellite for each orbit, in other words, which way the spacecraft was facing as it flew. It does not contain any science measurements itself.
How it's made. Produced from the satellite's own telemetry and orbit-boundary records as a very early, low-level (Level 0) processing step.
How & where you'd use it. A behind-the-scenes building block: it's essential for pinning down exactly where on Earth the satellite's carbon-dioxide measurements were taken. Most people use it indirectly through the finished science products.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2024-04-01 → ongoing
- Measured byOCO-2 (OCO-2)
- Processing levelLevel 0
- Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
- StatusACTIVE
What you can do with it
- Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
- Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
- Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description
Version 11.2 is the current version of the data set. Older versions will no longer be available and are superseded by Version 11.2 The Orbiting Carbon Observatory is the first NASA missiondesigned to collect space-based measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxidewith the precision, resolution, and coverage needed to characterize theprocesses controlling its buildup in the atmosphere. The OCO-2 project uses the LEOStar-2 spacecraft that carries a single instrument. It incorporates three high-resolution spectrometers that make coincident measurements ofreflected sunlight in the near-infrared CO2 near 1.61 and 2.06 micrometers and inmolecular oxygen (O2) A-Band at 0.76 micrometers . Each band has 1016 spectralelements.This product contains pointing angles of the spacecraft for each orbit.It is generated using the following input data:+ APID 20 telemetry+ Orbit Boundary File.It is essential in generating the Geolocations of the science data.
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="OCO2_Att",
version="11.2",
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 GES_DISC Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package. Official links
- Use the Earthdata Search to find and retrieve data sets across multiple data centers. GET DATA
- Access the data via the OPeNDAP protocol. USE SERVICE API
- Access the data via HTTP. GET DATA
- Software interface specification VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- README document. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- USER'S GUIDE VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Publications from the Science Team VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- OCO-2 Data Gaps VIEW RELATED INFORMATION