Earth Data School
About
Full catalog/OCO2_L2_ABand
OCO2_L2_ABand·v11.2r·dataset

Carbon dioxide retrieval, oxygen-band screened (OCO-2)

OCO-2 Level 2 spatially ordered geolocated retrievals screened using the A-band Preprocessor Retrospective Processing V11.2r (OCO2_L2_ABand) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 2 active
In plain English

What it measures. Carbon dioxide and related measurements from sunlight reflected off Earth, with a quality step that uses the oxygen 'A-band' to screen out cloud-spoiled scenes.

How it's made. Produced by the OCO-2 satellite, which carries three high-resolution spectrometers that read reflected sunlight in near-infrared and oxygen bands, with this product handling the cloud-screening stage.

How & where you'd use it. A screening product supporting OCO-2's main carbon dioxide measurements; researchers studying CO2 buildup rely on these results rather than using this file directly.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › CARBON AND HYDROCARBON COMPOUNDS › ATMOSPHERIC CARBON DIOXIDE

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 11.2r is the current version of the data set. Older versions will no longer be available and are superseded by Version 11.2r. 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

oco2_l2_aband_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="OCO2_L2_ABand",
    version="11.2r",
    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.