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Full catalog/OCO2_L2_Lite_FP
OCO2_L2_Lite_FP·v11.1r·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 V11.1r (OCO2_L2_Lite_FP) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 2
In plain English

What it measures. How much carbon dioxide is in the air, reported as the average CO2 concentration through a column of atmosphere, packaged as daily files with the measurement errors already corrected.

How it's made. Comes from NASA's OCO-2 satellite, whose three spectrometers measure sunlight reflected off Earth in specific infrared bands to infer the amount of CO2; this is the cleaned-up, bias-corrected daily version.

How & where you'd use it. Helps researchers map where carbon dioxide is building up or being absorbed, and study the natural and human processes that drive its rise in the atmosphere.

What's measured

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

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2014-06-01 → 2024-04-01
  • 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 11r is the current version of the data set. Older versions will no longer be available and are superseded by Version 11r. The OCO-2 Lite 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_lite_fp_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="OCO2_L2_Lite_FP",
    version="11.1r",
    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.