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OCO2_L1B_Science·v10r·dataset

Raw calibrated light spectra (OCO-2)

OCO-2 Level 1B calibrated, geolocated science spectra, Retrospective Processing V10r (OCO2_L1B_Science) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 1B
In plain English

What it measures. Raw, calibrated light spectra from three high-resolution spectrometers measuring reflected sunlight in specific near-infrared and oxygen bands. Each reading is precisely located on Earth.

How it's made. Captured by the single instrument on NASA's OCO-2 satellite and processed to a calibrated, geolocated Level-1B stage; this Version 10r corrected an earlier pointing error in 2020 data.

How & where you'd use it. A foundational input used to derive atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations; researchers rarely use the raw spectra directly, relying instead on the derived CO2 products.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › CARBON AND HYDROCARBON COMPOUNDS › ATMOSPHERIC CARBON DIOXIDESPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › INFRARED WAVELENGTHS › INFRARED RADIANCE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2014-09-06 → 2022-03-01
  • Measured byOCO-2 (OCO-2)
  • Processing levelLevel 1B
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • 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

Version 10r is the current version of the data set. Older versions will no longer be available and are superseded by Version 10r. In early 2021, the OCO Team identified an issue with OCO-2 level 2 products processed since January 28, 2020. The Ancillary Geometric Product (AGAP) file, a static file used in OCO-2 Geolocation processing, was inadvertently replaced with an obsolete version. This AGAP file included a ~300 m pointing error. As a result, all OCO-2 Level 2, version 10r, data files for the period January 28 - December 31, 2020, were corrected and replaced. The replacement process was completed by the end of June, 2021. The significance of this error has been described in Kiel et al. (2019; doi:10.5194/amt-12-2241-2019). The Orbiting Carbon Observatory is the first NASA mission designed to collect space-based measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide with the precision, resolution, and coverage needed to characterize the processes 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 of reflected sunlight in the near-infrared CO2 near 1.61 and 2.06 micrometers and in molecular oxygen (O2) A-Band at 0.76 micrometers. The three spectrometers have different characteristics and are calibrated independently. Their raw data numbers (DN) are delivered correlated in time to the Level 1B process as Level 1A products. Each band has 1016 spectral elements, although some are masked out in the L2 retrieval.This product is the output from the Level 1B process. It converts the raw instrument data numbers into calibrated radiances. This conversion is based upon files of instrument characteristics and algorithm parameters that may vary over time. In addition to calibrated radiances, the Level 1B output products have geolocation information recorded for each measurement for use in higher-level processes. This is the retrospective processing where the calibration data is estimated from the full timeseries of data (before, during, and after the measurements), and is expected to be of slightly higher quality.

Get the data

oco2_l1b_science_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="OCO2_L1B_Science",
    version="10r",
    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.