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Full catalog/SeaWiFS_L3m_CHL
SeaWiFS_L3m_CHL·v2022.0·dataset

Tiny ocean plants (chlorophyll) (SeaWiFS)

OrbView-2 SeaWiFS Level-3 Global Mapped Chlorophyll (CHL) Data, version 2022.0
ocean NASA OB_CLOUD Level 3 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Maps how much chlorophyll-a is in surface seawater, a stand-in for how many tiny floating plants (phytoplankton) are present, as a global gridded product in milligrams per cubic meter.

How it's made. Built from the SeaWiFS instrument on the OrbView-2 satellite, processed into mapped, gridded composites.

How & where you'd use it. Useful for studying ocean life and fisheries, spotting blooms and anomalies, and building long-term records. Coastal and inland waters carry more uncertainty.

What's measured

Oceans › Ocean Optics › Chlorophyll › Chlorophyll ConcentrationBIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › CHLOROPHYLLOCEANS › OCEAN CHEMISTRY › CHLOROPHYLLOCEANS › OCEAN CHEMISTRY › PIGMENTS › CHLOROPHYLLTERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › WATER QUALITY/WATER CHEMISTRY › WATER CHARACTERISTICS › CHLOROPHYLL CONCENTRATIONSBIOSPHERE › ECOSYSTEMS › AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS › PLANKTON › PHYTOPLANKTON

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1997-09-04 → 2010-12-11
  • Measured byOrbView-2 (SeaWiFS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Watch sea-surface temperature and marine heatwaves
  • Spot algal blooms and ocean-colour shifts
  • Support fisheries and coastal monitoring
Official description

The Chlorophyll-a data suite provides global, gridded composites of surface chlorophyll-a concentration (a proxy for phytoplankton biomass). CHL supports time-series and climatologies, anomaly detection, ecosystem and fisheries applications, and teaching/training, and pairs well with AVW, PAR, Kd(490), SST, and winds for environmental context. Note: retrievals in optically complex coastal/inland waters may carry higher uncertainty—refer to the mission/algorithm documentation (e.g., OCx/OCI) for details. Geophysical variables in this suite include: - chlor_a — Chlorophyll-a concentration (mg m⁻³)

Get the data

seawifs_l3m_chl_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="SeaWiFS_L3m_CHL",
    version="2022.0",
    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 OB_CLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.