CO2 readings screened with an oxygen-band check (OCO-2)
What it measures. Measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide from OCO-2, that have been filtered using a quality check based on the oxygen A-band part of the sunlight spectrum. The product is the geolocated readings that passed this screening.
How it's made. Produced from the OCO-2 satellite, whose instrument splits reflected sunlight into fine detail in near-infrared CO2 bands and an oxygen band; this version applies an A-band preprocessor to flag good data.
How & where you'd use it. A processing-stage product mainly used within the CO2 retrieval pipeline to ensure only reliable carbon dioxide readings move forward, rather than a finished map for general readers.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2019-11-30 → ongoing
- Measured byOCO-2 (OCO-2)
- Processing levelLevel 2
- Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
- StatusACTIVE
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 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 Older versions will no longer be available and are superseded by Version 11.2.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 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.
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="OCO2_L2_ABand",
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
- Access the data via HTTP GET DATA
- 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
- README document VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Data Quality document VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Software Interface Specification VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- ALGORITHM THEORETICAL BASIS DOCUMENT (ATBD) VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Publications from the Science Team VIEW RELATED INFORMATION