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OCO2_L2_Standard·v10r·dataset

Carbon dioxide in the air (OCO-2)

OCO-2 Level 2 geolocated XCO2 retrievals results, physical model, Retrospective Processing V10r (OCO2_L2_Standard) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 2
In plain English

What it measures. The amount of carbon dioxide in the air, reported as the column-averaged concentration above each measured spot - essentially how much CO2 is stacked up through the whole column of atmosphere there.

How it's made. Retrieved from sunlight reflected off Earth and measured by three high-precision spectrometers on NASA's OCO-2 satellite, which detect CO2's fingerprint in near-infrared light.

How & where you'd use it. Helps scientists understand where carbon dioxide builds up and what controls it, supporting climate and carbon-cycle research. (Note: this version corrected an earlier pointing error in 2020 data.)

What's measured

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

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2014-09-06 → 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 Older versions will no longer be available and are superseded by Version 10r. 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. This collection is the output from the algorithm retrieving the column-averaged CO2 dry air mole fraction XCO2 and other quantities from the spectra collected by the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2). This is the retrospective processing where the calibration data is estimated from the full timeseries of data (before, during, and after the measurements), and is expected to be of slightly higher quality.

Get the data

oco2_l2_standard_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="OCO2_L2_Standard",
    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.