Carbon dioxide in the air, pre-screened retrievals (OCO-2)
What it measures. An intermediate, pre-screening step in measuring carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from space, used to flag which observations are clean enough to keep and to help retrieve a glow plants give off (solar-induced fluorescence).
How it's made. Produced by the OCO-2 satellite, whose three spectrometers measure sunlight reflected in specific infrared bands; this is the output of a preprocessor in the operational data pipeline.
How & where you'd use it. A behind-the-scenes processing product that supports the official CO2 measurements and fluorescence studies, rather than a finished CO2 map for general use.
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 Older versions will no longer be available and are superseded by Version 11.2.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. This collection encompass the output from the IMAP-DOAS preprocessor, which is used for both screening of the official XCO2 product as well as for the retrieval of Solar-Induced Fluorescence from the 0.76 micrometer O2 A-band. The IMAP-DOAS preprocessor, just as the ABO2 cloud screen, is implemented in the operational OCO-2 processing pipeline.
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="OCO2_L2_IMAPDOAS",
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