DSCOVR EPIC Hourly Tropospheric Ozone Maps

DSCOVR EPIC Level 4 Tropospheric Ozone provides gridded synoptic maps of tropospheric ozone columns measured over the sunlit Earth disk on a 1-2 hour basis. The data is derived from the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera on the DSCOVR spacecraft by subtracting stratospheric ozone from total ozone measurements. Version 1.0 of the product is based on EPIC L1 Version 3 and MERRA -2 ozone fields, with data available from 2015 to the present.

Use Cases

• Analyzing diurnal and seasonal trends in the TroposphericColumnOzone or TroposphericColumnOzoneAdjusted fields.
• Mapping global pollution transport patterns using the 1° latitude x 1° longitude gridded ozone arrays.
• Validating atmospheric chemistry models by comparing simulated ozone against the adjusted TCO array derived from GEOS-Replay.
• Studying the impact of reduced sensitivity in the low troposphere by comparing the two provided TCO gridded arrays.

Strengths

• Data provides global coverage of the sunlit Earth disk.
• Hourly temporal resolution enables analysis of diurnal cycles.
• Includes both a base and an adjusted ozone array for improved accuracy.

Limitations

• Spatial resolution is coarser (1° x 1°) than the source total ozone product.
• Data is limited to sunlit portions of the Earth, creating a sampling bias.
• Product accuracy depends on the MERRA-2 and GEOS-Replay model inputs.

Provenance

Source

NASA DSCOVR EPIC instrument, processed by LARC_CLOUD.

Collection Method

Tropospheric columns derived by subtracting MERRA-2 stratospheric ozone from EPIC total ozone UV measurements.

Time Range

2015 - present

Freshness

Data is collected on a 1-2 hour basis from 2015 onward.

Geography

Global coverage of the sunlit Earth disk.