AIRS Aqua Tropospheric CO2 Retrieval Support Product

AIRS/Aqua L2 CO2 support retrieval data provides high-resolution profiles of tropospheric carbon dioxide concentrations from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder aboard NASA's Aqua satellite. The dataset includes 100 pressure levels between 1100 and 0.016 mb, a horizontal resolution of 50 km, and is intended for researchers and algorithm developers. It is produced by NASA's GES DISC, with metadata indicating updates from 2012 to 2026.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vertical profiles of tropospheric CO2 across 100 pressure levels for climate studies.
• Generating forward radiance models using the high-resolution atmospheric profiles.
• Examining research products and intermediate outputs like microwave-only retrievals for algorithm validation.
• Studying the spatial distribution of CO2 with a 50 km horizontal resolution over global satellite coverage.
• Assessing atmospheric quality using the detailed quality assessment information included in the support product.

Strengths

• Provides profiles at 100 vertical pressure levels, offering detailed atmospheric structure.
• Horizontal resolution of 50 km enables detailed spatial analysis of CO2 distribution.
• Cross-platform presence on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov signals its importance and wide usage.

Limitations

• Sources disagree on the last update date: NASA Earthdata lists 2012, while Data.gov lists 2026, creating uncertainty about data freshness.
• No specific row count, column names, or dataset size information is provided by any source.
• The license is unclear, with one source listing 'other-license-specified' and others listing it as unknown.

Provenance

Source

NASA GES DISC

Collection Method

Data gathered by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) grating spectrometer aboard the EOS Aqua satellite, in combination with AMSU and HSB sensors.

Freshness

2026-03-13 18:40:11.353576

Geography

Global coverage from the polar-orbiting Aqua satellite.