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Full catalog/S6A_RO_1B_POD_RNX_
S6A_RO_1B_POD_RNX_·v1·dataset

GPS signals bent by the atmosphere, daily (Sentinel-6A)

Sentinel-6A Level 1B GNSS Radio Occultation Daily RINEX V1 (S6A_RO_1B_POD_RNX_) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 1B active
In plain English

What it measures. Raw satellite navigation (GPS-style) signals received as they pass through and bend in Earth's atmosphere, plus precise orbit information for the satellite.

How it's made. Generated by NASA JPL from the Sentinel-6A satellite's radio occultation receiver and packaged in a standard navigation-data format (RINEX-3).

How & where you'd use it. Used to build vertical profiles of atmospheric temperature and humidity that feed weather prediction; this raw form is a specialist input rather than a finished product.

What's measured

CLIMATE INDICATORS › ATMOSPHERIC/OCEAN INDICATORS › TEMPERATURE INDICATORS › TEMPERATURE VARIABILITYSPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › RADIO WAVECLIMATE INDICATORS › ATMOSPHERIC/OCEAN INDICATORS › TEMPERATURE INDICES › COMMON SENSE CLIMATE INDEXSUN-EARTH INTERACTIONS › SOLAR ENERGETIC PARTICLE FLUX › ELECTRON FLUXSPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › SENSOR CHARACTERISTICS › GEOLOCATIONSPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › SENSOR CHARACTERISTICS › PHASE AND AMPLITUDESPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › MICROWAVECLIMATE INDICATORS › ATMOSPHERIC/OCEAN INDICATORS › TEMPERATURE INDICES

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2020-11-28 → ongoing
  • Measured bySentinel-6A (RO)
  • Processing levelLevel 1B
  • 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

This dataset provides the L1B Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Radio Occultation (RO) Precise Orbit Determination (POD) data generated by NASA JPL from Sentinel-6A Michael Freilich. The product provides raw satellite navigation system data and in the receiver independent exchange format version 3 (RINEX-3). Sentinel 6 is a collaborative mission between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and EUMETSAT, with participation from European Space Agency (ESA), the USA's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) of France. These organizations will deliver an operational mission as part of a two-satellite European Copernicus/Sentinel program. The Sentinel-6A Michael Freilich Jason-CS (Sentinel-6A) was launched in November 21, 2020. One objective of Sentinel 6 is to collect high-resolution vertical profiles of temperature and humidity, using GNSS RO sounding technique, to assess temperature and humidity changes in the troposphere and stratosphere and to support numerical weather prediction.

Get the data

s6a_ro_1b_pod_rnx__access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="S6A_RO_1B_POD_RNX_",
    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.