Dark-frame calibration images (TEMPO, provisional)
What it measures. Records the instrument's 'dark current'—the small background signal a detector produces even with no light coming in—measured across the camera's cross-track pixels, plus pixel quality flags.
How it's made. A low-level calibration product from the TEMPO air-quality instrument, produced by its processing pipeline; this version is provisional, meaning still being validated.
How & where you'd use it. A calibration building block: subtracting this background noise is a necessary step in turning TEMPO's raw readings into accurate measurements. Not a product general users work with directly.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2023-07-21 → ongoing
- Measured byIS-40e (TEMPO)
- Processing levelLevel 1A
- FormatsnetCDF-4
- StatusACTIVE
What you can do with it
- Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
- Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
- Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description
Level 1 dark (PROVISIONAL) files provide the processed dark currents, typically corresponding to either solar irradiance measurements or radiance measurements. Each file includes the measured dark currents for all the North-South cross-track pixels. The files are provided in netCDF4 format, and contain information on dark current rates of all frames and their average for the UV and visible bands, pixel quality flags and other ancillary information. The product is produced using the image processing of L0-1b processor. These data reached provisional validation on December 9, 2024.
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="TEMPO_DRK_L1",
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. Official links
- How to cite ASDC data VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Earthdata Search for TEMPO_DRK_L1_V04 (NASA Application to search, discover, visualize, refine, and access NASA Earth Observation data) GET DATA
- Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring Pollution (TEMPO) Project Level 1 Data Products: User Guide: User Guide, 10.5067/doc/tempo/L1UserGuide/V3.0 VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document for the TEMPO L0-1 Processor VIEW RELATED INFORMATION