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Full catalog/sentinel-5p-l2-so2-nrti
sentinel-5p-l2-so2-nrti·dataset

Sulphur dioxide in the air, fast satellite view (Copernicus)

Sentinel-5P Level 2 Sulphur Dioxide (NRTI)
atmosphere ESA ESA Copernicus active
In plain English

What it measures. Detects sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere, a sharp-smelling gas released by burning fossil fuels and erupting volcanoes that contributes to acid rain and poor air quality.

How it's made. Captured by the Sentinel-5P satellite, processed to Level-2 in a near-real-time stream available within hours of the satellite passing over.

How & where you'd use it. Especially valuable for catching volcanic eruptions early and for rapid air-quality alerts during pollution spikes.

What's measured

SentinelCopernicusESASatelliteGlobalAtmosphereL2SO2NRTIEUEC

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2018-04-30 → ongoing
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90

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 Collection provides Sentinel-5P Level-2 SO2 products, which contains high-resolution imagery of atmospheric sulfur dioxide concentrations.

Get the data

copernicus_access.py
# ESA Copernicus Data Space — open STAC API (free account)
from pystac_client import Client

cat = Client.open("https://stac.dataspace.copernicus.eu/v1")
search = cat.search(
    collections=["sentinel-5p-l2-so2-nrti"],   # add _cog or _nc for a format variant
    bbox=(-10, 35, 30, 60),             # your area (W,S,E,N)
    datetime="2024-01-01/2024-12-31",
)
items = list(search.items())            # then read assets with rioxarray / xarray
Browsing the Copernicus STAC is open; downloading bytes needs a free Copernicus Data Space account.