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Full catalog/S5P_L2__CH4____HiR_NRT
S5P_L2__CH4____HiR_NRT·v2·dataset

Methane in the air, near real-time (Sentinel-5P)

Sentinel-5P TROPOMI Near-Real-Time (NRT) Methane CH4 1-Orbit L2 5.5km x 7km V2 (S5P_L2__CH4____HiR_NRT) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 2 active
In plain English

What it measures. Amounts of methane gas in the air, measured along the satellite's orbit, delivered quickly so the data is fresh.

How it's made. Retrieved from the TROPOMI instrument on Sentinel-5P, which measures sunlight across several wavelengths, and produced in a near-real-time version typically available within about three hours.

How & where you'd use it. Good for rapid monitoring of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, including spotting leaks and emissions; for careful long-term analysis, the slower, refined version of this product is recommended instead.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRYATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › NITROGEN COMPOUNDSATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › NITROGEN COMPOUNDS › NITROGEN DIOXIDE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2025-11-26 → ongoing
  • Measured bySentinel-5P (TROPOMI)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • 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) Methane CH4 1-Orbit L2 5.5km x 7km V2 (S5P_L2__CH4____HiR_NRT) at GES DISC is the near real time version of the offline S5P_L2__CH4____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_L2__CH4____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). 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. The S5P/TROPOMI methane retrieval is for non-time-critical (NTC) data stream only, and its main outputs include the column averaged dry air mixing ratio of methane, the random error, and the biased corrected dry air methane fraction data based on the retrieved surface albedo. 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 ~82 MB.

Get the data

s5p_l2__ch4____hir_nrt_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="S5P_L2__CH4____HiR_NRT",
    version="2",
    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.