True surface color (PACE OCI)
What it measures. The true color of the Earth's surface with the atmosphere's haze removed, measured across 122 wavelengths from ultraviolet through near-infrared, given as unitless reflectance.
How it's made. Produced from the OCI instrument on the PACE satellite, processed to remove atmospheric effects and binned into a cloud-masked global grid.
How & where you'd use it. A foundational input for land products like vegetation health indices; the very fine color detail makes it valuable for studying surfaces and feeding downstream maps.
What's measured
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
- 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
Surface Reflectance (SFREFL) provides the unitless, bottom-of-atmosphere reflectance of the Earth's surface at 122 wavelengths (346 - 895 nm, with 5 SWIR bands). Surface Reflectance is the foundational input for downstream land products (e.g., vegetation indices included in the LANDVI suite). Users should review the documentation for more information on atmospheric correction and quality flags. Users should also note that the L3M product is masked for clouds. Geophysical variables in this suite include: - rhos – Surface reflectance (unitless)
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="PACE_OCI_L3B_SFREFL",
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. Official links
- Earthdata Search allows users to search, discover, visualize, refine, and access NASA Earth Observation data. GET DATA
- View the version history of this product. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- NASA's Ocean Color Web - Data Distribution Site GET DATA
- PACE Homepage VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- OCI Homepage VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Satellite data procesing can be difficult. We're here to help! Visit the Oceandata Help Hub to navigate learning content for accessing visualizing, and analyzing data products. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Data structure file for processing level L3 VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Sample data file for processing level L3 VIEW RELATED INFORMATION