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Full catalog/OML1BRUG
OML1BRUG·v004·dataset

Raw ultraviolet light bouncing off Earth (OMI, Aura)

OMI/Aura Level 1B UV Global Geolocated Earthshine Radiances V004 (OML1BRUG) at GES DISC
land NASA GES_DISC Level 1B active
In plain English

What it measures. Raw, location-tagged readings of how much ultraviolet light is bouncing back off Earth toward the satellite, across UV wavelengths from 264 to 383 nanometers.

How it's made. Recorded by the OMI instrument on the Aura satellite as 'Level 1B' radiances, an early-stage product before higher-level quantities are calculated, with about 14 files per day.

How & where you'd use it. A foundational building-block input: scientists rarely use it directly, but it underpins higher-level products such as ozone and aerosol measurements derived from it.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › ULTRAVIOLET WAVELENGTHS › ULTRAVIOLET RADIANCE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2004-10-01 → ongoing
  • Measured byAura (OMI)
  • Processing levelLevel 1B
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

The Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) Level 1B (L1B) Geolocated Earthshine UV Radiance, Global-mode (shortname OML1BRUG) Version 4 product contains geolocated Earth view spectral radiances from the UV detectors in the wavelength range of 264 to 383 nm taken in the global measurement mode. In the global mode, OMI observes 60 ground pixels (13 km x 24 km at nadir) across the swath (~2600 km) for each of the 557 channels of Band 2 (307-383 nm) and 30 ground pixels (13 km x 48 km at nadir) for the 159 channels of Band 1 (264-311 nm). There are approximately 14 files of orbital data per day. Each file contains data from the daylit portion of an orbit and is roughly 210 MB in size. This OML1BRUG global-mode product is occasionally unavailable when the instrument is collecting data in the zoom-mode or is making special calibration measurements. The data in the OML1BRUG files are stored in the Network Common Data Form (netCDF) format. The lead algorithm scientist for the OMI Level 1 products is Dr. Quintus Kleipool of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institude (KNMI).

Get the data

oml1brug_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="OML1BRUG",
    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.