Earth Data School
About
Full catalog/PACE_OCI_L3M_AER_UAA
PACE_OCI_L3M_AER_UAA·v3.1·dataset

Haze, dust and smoke over the ocean (PACE OCI)

PACE OCI Level-3 Global Mapped Aerosol Optical Properties, Unified Aerosol Algorithm (UAA) Algorithm Data, version 3.1
atmosphere NASA OB_CLOUD Level 3 active netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Global maps of airborne particles such as haze, dust, and smoke over the ocean, describing how much aerosol is present, its size mix, and how much light it absorbs.

How it's made. Retrieved from the OCI instrument on NASA's PACE satellite using the Unified Aerosol Algorithm and mapped to a Level-3 global grid.

How & where you'd use it. Used in air-quality and climate studies, to provide aerosol context for cleaning up ocean-color measurements, and to track trends and check models.

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 3
  • 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_λ - Aerosol optical thickness at λ nm - NUV_AerosolIndex — Near-UV aerosol index (unitless) - NUV_AerosolOpticalDepthOverCloud — Near-UV aerosol optical depth over cloud (unitless) - NUV_CloudOpticalDepth — Near-UV cloud optical depth (unitless)

Get the data

pace_oci_l3m_aer_uaa_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="PACE_OCI_L3M_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.