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Full catalog/PACE_SPEXONE_L2_MAPOL_OCEAN
PACE_SPEXONE_L2_MAPOL_OCEAN·v3.0·dataset

Haze, dust and smoke over the ocean (PACE)

PACE SPEXone Level-2 Regional Aerosol Over Ocean Optical Properties, FastMAPOL Algorithm Data, version 3.0
atmosphere NASA OB_CLOUD Level 2 active netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Properties of airborne particles over the ocean (haze, dust, smoke) and the color of light leaving the water, including particle amount, brightness, size, and layer height, solved together.

How it's made. Derived from the SPEXone polarimeter on NASA's PACE satellite using a fast algorithm that pairs an atmosphere-and-ocean light model with neural networks to speed up the calculation.

How & where you'd use it. Used for advanced studies of aerosols and ocean color, and for comparing results across different sensors and methods.

What's measured

Atmosphere › Aerosols › Aerosol Particle PropertiesOCEANS › OCEAN OPTICS › OCEAN COLOROCEANS › OCEAN OPTICS › REFLECTANCEATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESSOCEANS › OCEAN OPTICS › CHLOROPHYLL › CHLOROPHYLL CONCENTRATION

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

MAPOL_OCEAN provides simultaneous aerosol and ocean color products using the Fast Multi-Angle Polarimetric Ocean and Land algorithm (FastMAPOL). The retrievals jointly solve for aerosol and ocean parameters with a coupled atmosphere and ocean vector radiative-transfer model, accelerated by deep neural networks to improve speed and accuracy. The retrieved aerosol properties are then used to derive angular water leaving signals through multi-angle atmospheric corrections. Use these products for advanced aerosol and ocean color studies, cross-sensor and cross-algorithm data product analysis. Core geophysical variables in this suite include: - Rrs1/Rrs2 — Angular remote sensing reflectance before and after BRDF correction (sr⁻¹) - chla_mapol — Chlorophyll-a concentration (mg m⁻³) - aot / aot_fine / aot_coarse — Aerosol optical thickness for total/fine/coarse mode (unitless) - ssa / ssa_fine / ssa_coarse — Aerosol single scattering albedo for total/fine/coarse mode (unitless) - fmf / fvf — Aerosol fine mode fraction and fine mode volume fraction (unitless) - angstrom — Aerosol Ångström exponent (unitless; reported for 440–670 nm and 440–870 nm) - alh — Aerosol layer height (km) - reff_fine / reff_coarse — Aerosol effective radius for fine/coarse mode (µm) - veff_fine / veff_coarse — Aerosol effective variance for fine/coarse mode (unitless) - sph / sph_fine / sph_coarse — Aerosol spherical fraction for total/fine/coarse mode (unitless) - mr / mi — Real and imaginary parts of aerosol refractive index (unitless; total/fine/coarse modes available) - vd — Aerosol volume density (µm³ µm⁻²; fine/coarse modes and submodes also available) - wind_speed — Ocean surface wind speed (m s⁻¹)

Get the data

pace_spexone_l2_mapol_ocean_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="PACE_SPEXONE_L2_MAPOL_OCEAN",
    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.