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Full catalog/PACE_OCI_L2_AER_UAA
PACE_OCI_L2_AER_UAA·v3.1·dataset

Haze, dust and smoke in the air (PACE)

PACE OCI Level-2 Regional Aerosol Optical Properties, Unified Aerosol Algorithm (UAA) Algorithm Data, version 3.1
atmosphere NASA OB_CLOUD Level 2 active netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Properties of haze, dust, and smoke in the air, including how much aerosol is present, how big the particles are, how strongly they absorb light, and their height in the atmosphere.

How it's made. Retrieved from PACE's ocean-color camera using the Unified Aerosol Algorithm, which turns the measured light into these aerosol properties.

How & where you'd use it. Used for air-quality and climate studies, tracking aerosol trends, evaluating models, and helping correct ocean-color data for atmospheric haze; users should check the quality flags.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESSATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESS › UV AEROSOL INDEX

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2024-03-05 → ongoing
  • Measured byPACE (OCI)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • 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 AER_UAA suite provides aerosol optical properties (AOP), retrieved using the Unified Aerosol Algorithm (UAA). Core variables include measures that describe aerosol loading, size partitioning, and absorption. A companion product in the same family provides the UV Absorbing Aerosol Index (UVAI_UAA). Typical uses include air-quality and climate analyses, aerosol context for ocean-color atmospheric correction, trend studies, and model evaluation; users should refer to per-file metadata/flags for quality screening and wavelength availability. Core geophysical variables in this suite include: - Aerosol_Optical_Depth — Aerosol optical depth at multiple wavelengths (unitless) - AAOD — Average aerosol optical depth (unitless) - AerosolLayerHeight — Aerosol layer height (km) - AerosolSingleScattAlbedo — Aerosol single scattering albedo (unitless) - NUV_AerosolIndex — Near-UV aerosol index (unitless) - CloudOpticalDepth — Cloud optical depth (unitless) - CloudFraction — Radiative/derived cloud fraction (unitless; 0–1) - l2_flags — Level-2 Processing Flags (bitmask)

Get the data

pace_oci_l2_aer_uaa_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="PACE_OCI_L2_AER_UAA",
    version="3.1",
    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 OB_CLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.