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Full catalog/OML1BIRR
OML1BIRR·v004·dataset

How much sunlight the Sun sends us, averaged (Aura)

OMI/Aura Level 1B Averaged Solar Irradiances V004 (OML1BIRR) at GES DISC
heliosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 1B active
In plain English

What it measures. Records how much ultraviolet and visible sunlight the Sun itself is sending out, averaged across hundreds of narrow wavelength slices.

How it's made. Captured by the OMI instrument on NASA's Aura satellite when it points at the Sun near the north end of its orbit, then averaged and calibrated; typically produced once a day.

How & where you'd use it. A reference building block: this solar measurement is used to calibrate and interpret other OMI readings of light reflected from Earth, rather than used on its own.

What's measured

SUN-EARTH INTERACTIONS › SOLAR ACTIVITY › SOLAR IRRADIANCE › UV AND VISIBLE SOLAR IRRADIANCES AND PRECISIONS

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2004-10-01 → ongoing
  • Measured byAura (OMI)
  • Processing levelLevel 1B
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Monitor solar activity and space weather
  • Track flares, the solar wind and geomagnetic storms
Official description

The Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) Level 1B (L1B) UV Averaged Solar Irradiances product (shortname OML1BIRR) contains the averaged radiometrically calibrated irradiance measurements from the UV and VIS detectors. The OMI UV Band 1 (264-311 nm) has 159 wavelength bins, the UV Band 2 (307-383 nm) has 559 wavelength bins, and the VIS Band 3 (349-504 nm) has 751 wavelength bins. The data files are written in netCDF version 4 format and are usually made once per day when the Sun is within the solar port field-of-view just before the spacecraft moves into the night shadow at the north end of an orbit. The lead algorithm scientist for this product is Quintus Kleipool from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institude (KNMI).

Get the data

oml1birr_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="OML1BIRR",
    version="004",
    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.