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Full catalog/OML1BRVG
OML1BRVG·v004·dataset

Raw visible sunlight reflected off Earth (Aura)

OMI/Aura Level 1B VIS Global Geolocated Earthshine Radiances V004 (OML1BRVG) at GES DISC
land NASA GES_DISC Level 1B active
In plain English

What it measures. Raw amounts of visible sunlight reflected off the Earth, recorded across many wavelengths from violet to blue-green light, with location information for each measurement.

How it's made. Captured by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument on NASA's Aura satellite and packaged as a low-level (Level 1B) product, with about 14 orbit files per day.

How & where you'd use it. A foundational building-block input that scientists feed into higher-level products (like ozone and pollution maps) rather than something most people use directly.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS › VISIBLE 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 VIS Radiance, Global-mode (shortname OML1BRVG) Version 4 product contains geolocated Earth view spectral radiances from the VIS detectors in the wavelength range of 349 to 504 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 751 channels of Band 3 (349-504 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 240 MB in size. This OML1BRVG 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 OML1BRVG 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

oml1brvg_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="OML1BRVG",
    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.