Haze and smoke particles over ocean, live (PACE SPEXone)
What it measures. Characterizes haze and smoke particles over the open ocean — their abundance, size, how much light they absorb, and shape — plus the sea-surface roughness and water properties needed to interpret them.
How it's made. Retrieved in near-real-time from the SPEXone polarimeter on NASA's PACE satellite using the RemoTAP method, which jointly solves for both atmosphere and ocean.
How & where you'd use it. Supports aerosol-climate and air-quality studies, helps correct ocean-color images for haze, and can be paired with other PACE sensors for cross-checking.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2024-02-25 → ongoing
- Measured byPACE (SPEXone)
- Processing levelLevel 2
- 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
AER_RTAPOCEAN provides aerosol optical/microphysical properties retrieved over the oceans, along with coupled surface parameters used in the retrieval. The suite includes spectral aerosol optical depth (AOD), single-scattering albedo (SSA), complex refractive index (real/imaginary), size distribution metrics (e.g., fine/coarse effective radii and fine-mode fraction), and aerosol shape/fraction spherical; it also reports ocean surface roughness (glint/wind parameterization) and “ocean body” properties that define the water-leaving signal for consistency with the coupled atmosphere–ocean inversion. Use AER_RTAPOCEAN for aerosol-climate and air-quality studies, as aerosol context for ocean-color atmospheric correction, and for model evaluation and data assimilation; pair it with OCI/HARP2 products for cross-sensor analyses. Core geophysical variables in this suite include: • alh – Aerosol layer height (km) • aot – Aerosol optical thickness (dimensionless) • aot550 – Aerosol optical thickness at 550 nm (dimensionless) • angstrom_440_670 – Ångström exponent, 440–670 nm (dimensionless) • angstrom_440_870 – Ångström exponent, 440–870 nm (dimensionless) • angstrom_490_670 – Ångström exponent, 490–670 nm (dimensionless) • chla – Chlorophyll-a concentration (mg m⁻³) • fmf – Aerosol fine mode fraction (dimensionless) • fvf – Aerosol fine mode volume fraction (dimensionless) • lidar_bsca_total – Aerosol lidar backscatter coefficient (km⁻¹ sr⁻¹) • lidar_depol_ratio – Aerosol lidar depolarization ratio (dimensionless) • lidar_ratio – Aerosol lidar extinction-to-backscatter ratio (sr) • mi – Aerosol refractive index, imaginary part (dimensionless) • mr – Aerosol refractive index, real part (dimensionless) • reff_coarse – Aerosol effective radius, coarse mode (µm) • reff_fine – Aerosol effective radius, fine mode (µm) • sph – Aerosol spherical fraction (dimensionless) • ssa – Aerosol single scattering albedo (dimensionless) • vd – Aerosol volume density (µm³ µm⁻²) • veff_coarse – Aerosol effective variance, coarse mode (dimensionless) • veff_fine – Aerosol effective variance, fine mode (dimensionless) • waterfrac_inland – Water fraction over inland pixels (dimensionless, 0–1) • wind_speed – Wind speed (m s⁻¹)
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="PACE_SPEXONE_L2_AER_RTAPOCEAN_NRT",
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. 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
- SPEXone 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
- Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document for Ocean Properties, RemoTAP Algorithm - Near Real-time (NRT) VIEW RELATED INFORMATION