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Full catalog/SWDB_L310
SWDB_L310·v004·dataset

Haze, dust and smoke in the air, daily (SeaWiFS, 1°)

SeaWiFS Deep Blue Aerosol Optical Depth and Angstrom Exponent Daily Level 3 Data Gridded at 1.0 Degrees V004 (SWDB_L310) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 3
In plain English

What it measures. How hazy the air is each day from dust, smoke, and other tiny airborne particles, plus a clue about whether those particles are large or small. The haze measure is aerosol optical thickness, basically how much the particles dim the view through the air.

How it's made. Built from SeaWiFS satellite measurements using the 'Deep Blue' method, then averaged into a daily worldwide map with grid squares about 1 degree across (roughly 100 km).

How & where you'd use it. Gives a daily global picture of air haze, useful for tracking dust storms, smoke plumes, and pollution and for studying how particles affect climate and health.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESS › AODATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESS › ANGSTROM EXPONENTATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESS

Coverage & cadence

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

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 SeaWiFS Deep Blue Level 3 daily global gridded (1.0 x 1.0 deg) data is derived from SeaWiFS Deep Blue Level 2 data. In most cases, each data field represents the arithmetic mean of all cells whose latitude and longitude places it within the bounds of each grid element. Furthermore, only cells measured on the day of interest are included in this calculation. The local date based on the longitude of the cell is calculated from the time of measurement. If the local date equals the day of interest, the cell is included in the L3 data processing. The primary data parameters are aerosol optical thickness, and Angstrom exponent.

Get the data

swdb_l310_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="SWDB_L310",
    version="004",
    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.