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Full catalog/TRPSYL2HDOAIRSORS
TRPSYL2HDOAIRSORS·v1·dataset

Heavy water vapor for tracking the water cycle (AIRS, Aqua)

TROPESS AIRS-Aqua L2 Deuterated Water Vapor for Reanalysis Stream, Summary Product V1 (TRPSYL2HDOAIRSORS) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 2
In plain English

What it measures. The amount of a rare, heavier form of water vapor (containing deuterium, a heavy version of hydrogen) at different heights in the atmosphere, along with formal uncertainty estimates.

How it's made. Retrieved from measurements by the AIRS instrument on the Aqua satellite using NASA's TROPESS optimal-estimation method, with each file holding one day of data at 17 vertical levels.

How & where you'd use it. Because heavy water behaves differently as water evaporates and condenses, these readings help researchers trace how water moves through the atmosphere and improve reanalysis of the water cycle.

What's measured

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

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2002-09-01 → 2020-03-31
  • Measured byAqua (AIRS)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • 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 TROPESS AIRS-Aqua L2 Deuterated Water Vapor for Reanalysis 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 reanalysis stream summary product is global for the time period from 2002-09-01 to 2020-03-31. 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

trpsyl2hdoairsors_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="TRPSYL2HDOAIRSORS",
    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.