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Full catalog/OCO2_L2_Lite_FP
OCO2_L2_Lite_FP·v10r·dataset

Carbon dioxide in the air, daily (OCO-2)

OCO-2 Level 2 bias-corrected XCO2 and other select fields from the full-physics retrieval aggregated as daily files, Retrospective processing V10r (OCO2_L2_Lite_FP) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 2
In plain English

What it measures. Daily measurements of how much carbon dioxide is in the air, expressed as the average CO2 concentration through the full column of atmosphere, with corrections applied to reduce bias.

How it's made. Derived from the OCO-2 satellite's three high-resolution spectrometers, which measure reflected sunlight; the processed Level-2 retrievals are aggregated into daily files.

How & where you'd use it. Used to study where carbon dioxide builds up and how it moves through the atmosphere, supporting climate and carbon-cycle research.

What's measured

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

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2014-06-01 → 2022-03-01
  • Measured byOCO-2 (OCO-2)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • 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 Older versions will no longer be available and are superseded by Version 10r. The OCO-2 Lite files contain bias-corrected XCO2 along with other select fields aggregated as daily files. 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.

Get the data

oco2_l2_lite_fp_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="OCO2_L2_Lite_FP",
    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.