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Full catalog/OCO2_L2_Fwd_FP
OCO2_L2_Fwd_FP·v11.2·dataset

Carbon dioxide in the air (OCO-2, forward processing)

OCO-2 Level 2 bias-corrected XCO2 and other select fields from the full-physics retrieval, Forward processing V11.2 (OCO2_L2_Fwd_FP_11.2)
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 2 active
In plain English

What it measures. The amount of carbon dioxide in the air, reported as a corrected concentration along with a few related fields, bundled into daily files.

How it's made. Comes from the OCO-2 satellite, which uses three high-resolution spectrometers to measure sunlight reflected off Earth in specific wavelengths sensitive to CO2 and oxygen; this is the fast 'forward processing' version.

How & where you'd use it. Tracking how carbon dioxide builds up and moves through the atmosphere is central to understanding climate change and where carbon is absorbed or released.

What's measured

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

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2025-02-02 → 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. The OCO-2 Full-physics Forward processing files contain bias-corrected XCO2 along with other select fields aggregated as daily files. 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_fwd_fp_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="OCO2_L2_Fwd_FP",
    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.