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OCO3_L1B_Calibration·v10·dataset

Instrument calibration light readings (OCO-3)

OCO-3 Level 1B calibrated, geolocated calibration spectra, V10 (OCO3_L1B_Calibration) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 1B
In plain English

What it measures. Calibration light readings from the OCO-3 instrument, taken while it looks at references like the Moon, the Sun, or darkness rather than at the Earth.

How it's made. Produced from OCO-3's three high-resolution spectrometers aboard the International Space Station, processed into geolocated, calibrated spectra from these special calibration measurements.

How & where you'd use it. A behind-the-scenes input that keeps the instrument's carbon dioxide measurements accurate; used by the science team for calibration rather than directly by most people.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › CARBON AND HYDROCARBON COMPOUNDS › ATMOSPHERIC CARBON DIOXIDESPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › INFRARED WAVELENGTHS › INFRARED RADIANCE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2019-12-17 → 2023-11-12
  • Measured byISS (OCO-3)
  • Processing levelLevel 1B
  • Spatial extent-180, -53, 180, 53
  • 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 10 is the current version of the data set. Older versions will no longer be available and are superseded by Version 10. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory -3 (OCO-3) was deployed to the International Space Station in May, 2019. It is technically a single instrument, almost identical to OCO-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-3 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. The three spectrometers have different characteristics and are calibrated independently. Their raw data numbers (DN) are delivered correlated in time to the Level 1B process as Level 1A products. Each band has 1016 spectralelements, although some are masked out in the L2 retrieval. This L1B product results from calibration mode measurements (e.g., Lunar,Solar, Dark observations), and thus it differs from the OCO3_L1B_Science (L1bSc) product. The differences in the product formats are only in the geolocation information provided. Whereas the L1bSc products report geolocation data for each sounding, calibration products report the direction of the boresight vector.

Get the data

oco3_l1b_calibration_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="OCO3_L1B_Calibration",
    version="10",
    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.