Earth Data School
About
Full catalog/S5P_L2__AER_LH
S5P_L2__AER_LH·v1·dataset

How high the haze and smoke layer sits (TROPOMI)

Sentinel-5P TROPOMI Aerosol Layer Height 1-Orbit L2 7km x 3.5km V1 (S5P_L2__AER_LH) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 2
In plain English

What it measures. Estimates how high above the ground a layer of haze or smoke is sitting, that is, the altitude of airborne particles such as wildfire plumes and dust.

How it's made. Derived from the TROPOMI spectrometer on the European Sentinel-5P satellite using a physics-based model sped up with a neural network to find the best-fit layer height.

How & where you'd use it. Helpful for understanding how high smoke and dust travel, which matters for air quality, aviation, and tracking how plumes spread through the atmosphere.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLSATMOSPHERE › AIR QUALITYATMOSPHERE › AIR QUALITY › SMOGATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › OXYGEN COMPOUNDS › ATMOSPHERIC OZONE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2018-04-30 → 2019-08-06
  • Measured bySentinel-5P (TROPOMI)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • StatusCOMPLETE

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

Starting from August 6th in 2019, Sentinel-5P TROPOMI along-track high spatial resolution (~5.5km at nadir) has been implemented. For data after August 6th of 2019, please check S5P_L2__AER_LH data collection. 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). Sentinel-5P is the first of the Atmospheric Composition Sentinels and is expected to provide measurements of ozone, NO2, SO2, CH4, CO, formaldehyde, aerosols and cloud at high spatial, temporal and spectral resolutions. Copernicus Sentinel-5P TROPOMI aerosol layer height algorithm applies a forward model, which includes DISAMAR (Determining Instrument Specifications and Analyzing Methods for Atmospheric Retrieval, a Layer-Based Orders of Scattering algorithm) to calculate monochromatic reflectance, and also employs a neural network scheme for speedy processor performance. Data retrieval uses the Optimal Estimation Method (OEM) for spectral fitting with various aerosol layer pressures and aerosol optical thicknesses in the Oxygen-A band (758 -770nm). The aerosol baseline model assumes a single uniformly distributed aerosol layer with a fixed pressure thickness and a constant aerosol volume extinction coefficient and single scattering albedo. The aerosol parameterization is particularly suitable for elevated non-scattering aerosols such as volcanic ash, desert dust and biomass burning plume. The product main outputs include the mid-pressure and mid-altitude of aerosol layers, aerosol optical thickness at 760nm, error estimates, and other relevant diagnostics.

Get the data

s5p_l2__aer_lh_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="S5P_L2__AER_LH",
    version="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 GES_DISC
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.