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Full catalog/PACE_SPEXONE_L2_AER_RTAPLAND
PACE_SPEXONE_L2_AER_RTAPLAND·v3.0·dataset

Land surface properties from polarized light (PACE SPEXone)

PACE SPEXone Level-2 Regional Land Properties, RemoTAP Algorithm Data, version 3.0
atmosphere NASA OB_CLOUD Level 2 active netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Properties of both airborne particles and the land surface beneath them, derived from how light is polarized. Includes aerosol amount, size, height, and light absorption, plus detailed descriptions of how the land reflects and polarizes light.

How it's made. Retrieved from the SPEXone polarimeter on NASA's PACE satellite using the RemoTAP algorithm, which solves for the surface and atmosphere together over land.

How & where you'd use it. Used in air-quality and climate studies, to give aerosol context for land and ocean analyses, and for radiative-transfer work and model evaluation.

What's measured

Atmosphere › AerosolsAtmosphere › Aerosols › Aerosol Particle Properties

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2024-02-05 → ongoing
  • Measured byPACE (SPEXone)
  • 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

AER_RTAPLAND provides aerosol and land‐surface properties over land retrieved using the RemoTAP algorithm. Because RemoTAP jointly models surface and atmosphere over land, the suite also provides spectrally resolved land-surface BRDF and BPDF parameters for reflectance and polarization. Typical uses: air-quality and climate studies, aerosol context for ocean-color/land analyses, radiative transfer, and model evaluation. Core geophysical variables in this suite include: - alh — Aerosol layer height (km) - angstrom_440_670 / angstrom_440_870 / angstrom_490_670 — Aerosol Ångström exponents (unitless) - aot / aot550 / aot_fine / aot_coarse — Aerosol optical thickness (unitless) - bpdf_scale, ross_thick, li_sparse, snow_coef — BRDF/BDPF kernel coefficients (unitless) - chla — Chlorophyll-a concentration (mg m⁻³) - fmf / fvf — Aerosol fine mode fraction and fine mode volume fraction (unitless) - lidar_bsca_total / lidar_depol_ratio / lidar_ratio — Aerosol lidar diagnostics (sr⁻¹ m⁻¹, unitless) - mi / mr — Aerosol refractive index (imaginary/real part, unitless) - reff_fine / reff_coarse — Aerosol effective radius (µm) - sph — Aerosol spherical fraction (unitless) - ssa — Aerosol single scattering albedo (unitless) - vd / veff_fine / veff_coarse — Aerosol volume density (µm³ µm⁻²) and effective variance (unitless) - waterfrac_inland — Water fraction for inland pixels (unitless) - wind_speed — Ocean surface wind speed (m s⁻¹)

Get the data

pace_spexone_l2_aer_rtapland_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="PACE_SPEXONE_L2_AER_RTAPLAND",
    version="3.0",
    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.