Raw ultraviolet-visible light readings, near-real-time (TROPOMI)
What it measures. Raw readings of ultraviolet-to-visible light coming up from the Earth and atmosphere, recorded across many wavelengths, delivered very quickly after measurement.
How it's made. Captured by the TROPOMI instrument on Europe's Sentinel-5P satellite and processed into a low-level (Level 1B) product, usually available within about three hours and kept only for ten days.
How & where you'd use it. A raw building-block input mainly fed into higher-level air-quality products; the fast near-real-time version is for quick assessments, while researchers needing a long record use the standard version.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2025-11-26 → ongoing
- Measured bySentinel-5P (TROPOMI)
- Processing levelLevel 1B
- Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
- 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 Sentinel-5P TROPOMI Near Real Time (NRT) Radiance product band 4 (UVIS detector) L1B 5.5km x 21km V3 (S5P_L1B_RA_BD4_HiR_NRT) product at GES DISC is the near real time version of the offline S5P_L1B_RA_BD4_HiR data product. These data are typically available within three hours of measurement as required by the Land Atmosphere NRT Capability Earth Observing System (LANCE). These data are intended for a rapid turnaround assessment and are only archived for up to ten days. Users who require a longer data record, or wish to conduct rigorous analysis should use the offline version of this product S5P_L1B_RA_BD4_HiR. The Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor (Sentinel-5P or S5P) satellite mission is one of the European Space Agency's (ESA) new mission family - Sentinels, and it is a joint initiative between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the ESA. The sole payload on Sentinel-5P is the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI), which is a nadir-viewing 108 degree Field-of-View push-broom grating hyperspectral spectrometer, covering the wavelength of ultraviolet-visible (UV-VIS, 270nm to 495nm), near infrared (NIR, 675nm to 775nm), and shortwave infrared (SWIR, 2305nm-2385nm). TROPOMI Level-1B (L1B) product is generated by the Koninklijk Nederlands Meteoroligisch Instituut (KNMI) TROPOMI L01B processor from Level-0 input data and auxiliary data products with the netCDF-4 enhanced model. It provides users with radiance, irradiance, calibration and engineering products. Data are stored in individual files, or granules, that contain one orbit of information. The data are stored in netCDF4 data format and files and complete files are 0.650 GB.
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="S5P_L1B_RA_BD4_HiR_NRT",
version="3",
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 GES_DISC Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package. Official links
- ESA Sentinel-5P End User License Agreement VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- ESA Sentinel Latest Mission Status Reports VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Access the data via the OPeNDAP protocol. USE SERVICE API
- Access the data via HTTPS. GET DATA
- Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Data Specification Document VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Use the Earthdata Search to find and retrieve data sets across multiple data centers. GET DATA
- README Document VIEW RELATED INFORMATION