How much carbon ocean plankton hold (NOAA-20)
What it measures. An estimate of how much carbon is held in the tiny floating plants (phytoplankton) near the ocean surface, mapped globally.
How it's made. Derived from the NOAA-20 satellite's VIIRS ocean-color observations and processed into a global mapped product.
How & where you'd use it. Used to gauge ocean plant biomass and carbon stocks, assess ecosystem productivity, and feed ocean chemistry and ecosystem models. Less reliable in murky coastal or inland waters.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2017-11-29 → ongoing
- Measured byNOAA-20 (VIIRS)
- Processing levelLevel 4
- Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
- FormatsnetCDF-4
- StatusACTIVE
What you can do with it
- Watch sea-surface temperature and marine heatwaves
- Spot algal blooms and ocean-colour shifts
- Support fisheries and coastal monitoring
Official description
The carbon_phyto product provides phytoplankton carbon concentration derived from NASA ocean-color observations. Typical uses include quantifying biomass and carbon stocks, assessing ecosystem productivity and change, driving biogeochemical models, and providing biological context alongside chlorophyll, PAR, SST, and other environmental variables. Refer to the file metadata and product documentation for algorithm details, flags, and any mission-specific caveats (especially in optically complex coastal/inland waters). Geophysical variables in this suite include: - carbon_phyto — Phytoplankton carbon concentration (mg m⁻³)
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="VIIRSJ1_L4m_CARBON",
version="2022.0",
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 OB_CLOUDBrowsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package. Official links
- OPeNDAP Site for NOAA-20 VIIRS Standard Mapped Image (SMI) Product USE SERVICE API
- Earthdata Search allows users to search, discover, visualize, refine, and access NASA Earth Observation data. GET DATA
- View the version history of this product. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- NASA's Ocean Color Web - Data Distribution Site GET DATA
- NOAA-20 Homepage VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- VIIRS Homepage VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Satellite data procesing can be difficult. We're here to help! Visit the Oceandata Help Hub to navigate learning content for accessing visualizing, and analyzing data products. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document for Phytoplankton Carbon VIEW RELATED INFORMATION