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Full catalog/TRPSYL2HDOAIRSFS
TRPSYL2HDOAIRSFS·v1·dataset

Heavy-form water vapor in the air (Aqua, summary)

TROPESS AIRS-Aqua L2 Deuterated Water Vapor for Forward Stream, Summary Product V1 (TRPSYL2HDOAIRSFS) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 2 active
In plain English

What it measures. The amount and vertical distribution of a heavy form of water vapor (where ordinary hydrogen is swapped for its heavier cousin), with error estimates, from the surface to the top of the atmosphere.

How it's made. Derived from the AIRS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite, processed by the TROPESS project using a method that extracts the gas profile from the raw measurements.

How & where you'd use it. The ratio of heavy to normal water vapor reveals where moisture comes from and how it cycles, helping scientists study evaporation, rainfall, and the water cycle.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS › HYDROGEN-DEUTERIUM OXIDE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2002-08-30 → 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 Deuterated Water Vapor for Forward Stream, Summary Product contains the vertical distribution of the retrieved atmospheric state of semi-heavy water (HDO), and formal uncertainties 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

trpsyl2hdoairsfs_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="TRPSYL2HDOAIRSFS",
    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.