Earth Data School
About
Full catalog/PACE_OCI_L4M_MOANA
PACE_OCI_L4M_MOANA·v3.1·dataset

Types of tiny ocean plankton communities (PACE)

PACE OCI Level-4 Regional Mapped Multi-Ordination ANAlysis (MOANA) Data, version 3.1
biosphere NASA OB_CLOUD Level 4 active netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Maps of how abundant three groups of tiny ocean plankton are: Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus, and picoeukaryotes, reported as cells per milliliter of seawater.

How it's made. Derived from ocean-color measurements by the OCI instrument on NASA's PACE satellite, with sea surface temperature as an extra input, then mapped into regional grids.

How & where you'd use it. Used to study where different plankton communities live, track them over time, assess ocean ecosystems, and test ocean models; accuracy can drop in murky coastal waters, so users should check the quality flags.

What's measured

Biological Classification › Bacteria/Archaea › Cyanobacteria (Blue-Green Algae)Biological Classification › ProtistsBiosphere › Ecosystems › Aquatic Ecosystems › Plankton › PhytoplanktonBiosphere › Ecosystems › Marine Ecosystems › Pelagic › Oceanic Zone

Coverage & cadence

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

What you can do with it

  • Map vegetation, forests and biomass
  • Monitor ecosystem productivity and carbon
  • Support habitat and biodiversity studies
Official description

The MOANA data suite provides picophytoplankton group abundances—Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus, and picoeukaryotes—derived from ocean-color (with SST as ancillary input) and reported in cells mL⁻¹. Products can be used for time-series, regional biogeography, ecosystem assessments, and model evaluation. Note that retrieval accuracy can vary in optically complex coastal waters, so users should refer to flags and documentation when screening. Geophysical variables in this suite include: - picoeuk_moana — Cell abundance of picoeukaryotes (cells mL⁻¹) - prochlorococcus_moana — Cell abundance of Prochlorococcus (cells mL⁻¹) - synechococcus_moana — Cell abundance of Synechococcus (cells mL⁻¹)

Get the data

pace_oci_l4m_moana_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="PACE_OCI_L4M_MOANA",
    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.