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Full catalog/PACE_OCI_L3B_IOP_NRT
PACE_OCI_L3B_IOP_NRT·v3.1·dataset

What's coloring the ocean water, near real-time (PACE)

PACE OCI Level-3 Global Binned Ocean Color Inherent Optical Properties (OC_IOP) - Near Real-time (NRT) Data, version 3.1
ocean NASA OB_CLOUD Level 3 active netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Properties of ocean water that describe how it absorbs and scatters light, independent of the lighting at the time. These reveal what's in the water, like phytoplankton and dissolved material, and how clear it is.

How it's made. Derived from the OCI instrument on the PACE satellite using a model that turns the water's color into these optical properties; this is a quick-turnaround near-real-time version using less-than-ideal supporting data.

How & where you'd use it. Supports water-clarity assessment, classifying water types, and ocean biology and chemistry studies, with the speed of near-real-time delivery at the cost of some accuracy.

What's measured

OCEANS › OCEAN OPTICS › ABSORPTIONOCEANS › OCEAN OPTICS › ATTENUATION/TRANSMISSIONOCEANS › OCEAN OPTICS › GELBSTOFFOCEANS › OCEAN OPTICS › REFLECTANCEOCEANS › OCEAN OPTICS › SCATTERINGBIOSPHERE › ECOSYSTEMS › AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS › PLANKTON › PHYTOPLANKTONTERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › WATER QUALITY/WATER CHEMISTRY › WATER CHARACTERISTICS › ORGANIC MATTERTERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › WATER QUALITY/WATER CHEMISTRY › WATER CHARACTERISTICS › LIGHT TRANSMISSIONEARTH SCIENCE SERVICES › ENVIRONMENTAL ADVISORIES › HYDROLOGICAL ADVISORIES › WATER QUALITYTERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SURFACE WATER

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2024-03-05 → ongoing
  • Measured byPACE (OCI)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Watch sea-surface temperature and marine heatwaves
  • Spot algal blooms and ocean-colour shifts
  • Support fisheries and coastal monitoring
Official description

The Ocean Biology DAAC produces near real-time (NRT) products using the best-available combination of ancillary data from meteorological and ozone data. As such, the inputs and the calibration used are less than optimal. Near real-time products provide a snapshot of the data during a short time period within a single orbit. The Inherent Optical Properties (IOP) suite provides per-pixel inherent optical properties - quantities that describe how seawater and its constituents absorb and scatter light, independent of illumination or viewing geometry. IOPs are retrieved from spectral Remote Sensing Reflectance (Rrs) using the default configuration of the Generalized Inherent Optical Properties (GIOP) model framework. These products support water-type classification, water-clarity assessment, biogeochemical studies, and forward/adjoint radiative-transfer applications, and they enable more robust cross-sensor comparisons than purely apparent (AOP) products. The hyperspctral band list is found in the science data file metadata. Geophysical variables in this suite include: - Kd - Diffuse attenuation coefficient of downwelling irradiance (m^-1) - a - Total absorption coefficient (sum of pure water + phytoplankton + CDOM/detritus, m^-1) - bb - Total backscattering coefficient (m^-1) - aph - Phytoplankton absorption coefficient (m^-1) - aph_unc_442 - Uncertainty in absorption due to phytoplankton at 442 nm (m^-1) - adg_442 - Combined CDOM + non-algal detritus absorption coefficient at 442nm (m^-1) - adg_unc_442 - Uncertainty in absorption due to gelbstoff and detrital material at 442 nm (m^-1) - bbp_442 - Particulate backscattering coefficient at 442nm (m^-1) - bbp_unc_442 - Uncertainty in particulate backscattering at 442 nm (m^-1) - rrsdiff - Fractional mean Rrs difference (reconstructed from inverted IOPs - input) (unitless)

Get the data

pace_oci_l3b_iop_nrt_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="PACE_OCI_L3B_IOP_NRT",
    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.