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Full catalog/TEMPO_CLDO4_L3
TEMPO_CLDO4_L3·vV04·dataset

Cloud cover and height, hourly over North America (TEMPO)

TEMPO gridded cloud fraction and pressure (O2-O2 dimer) Version V04 (PROVISIONAL)
atmosphere NASA LARC_CLOUD Level 3 active netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Hourly maps of cloud cover over North America, including how much of each area is cloudy and how high the clouds sit (given as cloud pressure, which relates to altitude).

How it's made. Built from the TEMPO instrument, which watches North America from a fixed high orbit, by stitching together its east-to-west scans across the day into a regular map grid.

How & where you'd use it. Tracking cloud patterns hour by hour and helping interpret TEMPO's air-pollution measurements, which depend on knowing where clouds get in the way. Note: this is a provisional product still being validated.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD TOP PRESSUREATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD FRACTION

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2023-08-02 → ongoing
  • Measured byIS-40e (TEMPO)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • 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

O2-O2 cloud Level 3 (PROVISIONAL) files provide cloud information on a regular grid covering the TEMPO field of regard for nominal TEMPO observations. Level 3 files are derived by combining information from all Level 2 files constituting a TEMPO East-West scan cycle. The files are provided in netCDF4 format, and contain information on effective cloud fraction, cloud optical centroid pressure, and ancillary data. The re-gridding algorithm uses an area-weighted approach. These data reached provisional validation on December 9, 2024.

Get the data

tempo_cldo4_l3_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="TEMPO_CLDO4_L3",
    version="V04",
    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 LARC_CLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.