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Full catalog/S5P_L2__NP_BD3_HiR
S5P_L2__NP_BD3_HiR·v1·dataset

Where clouds are, from pollution satellite (Sentinel-5P)

Sentinel-5P TROPOMI SNPP VIIRS cloud product band 3 (UVIS detector) 1-Orbit L2 5.5km x 3.5km V1 (S5P_L2__NP_BD3_HiR) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 2 active
In plain English

What it measures. Identifies where clouds were across each orbital strip of the Sentinel-5P pollution-monitoring satellite, using sharper cloud detail borrowed from a partner U.S. weather satellite flying nearby.

How it's made. Created by matching cloud observations from the VIIRS instrument on the Suomi-NPP satellite to each measurement spot of Sentinel-5P's TROPOMI instrument, at about 5.5 km resolution.

How & where you'd use it. Helps interpret Sentinel-5P's air-quality readings, since knowing where clouds sit is essential for accurately measuring gases like ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and methane.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD FRACTIONATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD FREQUENCY

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2018-04-30 → 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

Starting from August 6th in 2019, Sentinel-5P TROPOMI along-track high spatial resolution (~5.5km at nadir) has been implemented. For data before August 6th of 2019, please check S5P_L2__NP_BD3_1 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 is flying in a loose formation with U.S. Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) so that S5P is able to utilize the high spatial resolution capability of the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument. S5P_L2_NP_BDx product contains VIIRS cloud information for each S5P across-track observation in a given band (i.e. band 3, band 6 and band 7). In addition to the nominal filed-of-view (FOV), the S5P_NPPC products are also generated for three scaled FOVs both in along and across-track directions to account for the presence of cloud covering a more extended area than the nominal FOV. The main output of S5P_L2_NP_BDx are the number of VIIRS pixels classified as confidently cloudy, probably cloudy, probably clear, and confidently clear; and the VIIRS sun-normalized radiance information in band M7, M9, and M11 such as mean, standard deviation, as well as number of valid radiance contributions.

Get the data

s5p_l2__np_bd3_hir_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="S5P_L2__NP_BD3_HiR",
    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.