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Full catalog/OMAERUV
OMAERUV·v003·dataset

How much UV light haze and smoke absorb (Aura)

OMI/Aura Near UV Aerosol Optical Depth and Single Scattering Albedo 1-orbit L2 Swath 13x24 km V003 (OMAERUV) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 2 active
In plain English

What it measures. How much ultraviolet light airborne particles absorb and scatter, reported as aerosol absorption and extinction optical depth plus single-scattering albedo at three wavelengths, along with an aerosol index.

How it's made. Retrieved from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument on NASA's Aura satellite using an enhanced algorithm, with each file covering the daylit part of one orbit.

How & where you'd use it. Used to study smoke, dust, and pollution haze, including absorbing particles that affect air quality and the atmosphere's energy balance.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL EXTINCTION › AEROSOL SINGLE SCATTERING-ALBEDOATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESS

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2004-10-01 → ongoing
  • Measured byAura (OMI)
  • 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

The Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument level-2 near UV Aerosol data product 'OMAERUV', recently re-processed using an enhanced algorithm, is now released (April 2012) to the public. The data are available from the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC). The shortname for this Level-2 near-UV Aerosol Product is OMAERUV_V003. The OMAERUV retrieval algorithm is developed by the US OMI Team Scientists. Dr. Omar Torres (GSFC/NASA) is the principal investigator of this product. The OMAERUV product contains Aerosol Absorption and Aerosol Extinction Optical Depths, and Single Scattering Albedo at three different wavelengths (354, 388 and 500 nm), Aerosol Index, and other ancillary and geolocation parameters, in the OMI field of view (13x24 km). The OMAERUV files are stored in the version 5 EOS Hierarchical Data Format (HDF-EOS5). Each file contains data from the day lit portion of an orbit (~53 minutes). There are approximately 14 orbits per day. The maximum file size for the OMAERUV data product is about 6 Mbytes.

Get the data

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="OMAERUV",
    version="003",
    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.