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Full catalog/TRPSDL2H2OAIRSFS
TRPSDL2H2OAIRSFS·v1·dataset

Water vapor in the air, detailed (Aqua)

TROPESS AIRS-Aqua L2 Water for Forward Stream, Standard Product V1 (TRPSDL2H2OAIRSFS) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 2 active
In plain English

What it measures. Shows how much water vapor is in the air at different heights, with uncertainty estimates. Water vapor is the atmosphere's main greenhouse gas and a key part of weather.

How it's made. Derived from the AIRS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite using the TROPESS estimation method, delivered as daily files of vertical profiles.

How & where you'd use it. Helps with weather and climate research, understanding humidity and the water cycle, and improving atmospheric models.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR › WATER VAPOR INDICATORS › WATER VAPOR

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2021-02-01 → ongoing
  • Measured byAqua (AIRS)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • 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

The TROPESS AIRS-Aqua L2 Water for Forward Stream, Standard Product contains the vertical distribution of the retrieved atmospheric state of water vapor (H2O), formal uncertainties, and diagnostic information measured by the AIRS instrument on the EOS Aqua satellite. The forward stream standard product is global for the time period from 2021-02-01 to present. The NASA TRopospheric Ozone and Precursors from Earth System Sounding (TROPESS) project, uses an optimal estimation algorithm, known as the MUlti-SpEctra, MUlti-SpEcies, Multi-SEnsors (MUSES). The data files are written in the netCDF version 4 file format, and each file contains one day of data. The data have a spatial resolution of 13.5 km (AIRS nadir FOV), and are reported at 17 vertical levels from the surface to 0.1 hPa. The principal investigator for the TROPESS project is Kevin W. Bowman.

Get the data

trpsdl2h2oairsfs_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="TRPSDL2H2OAIRSFS",
    version="1",
    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.