MOPITT Beta Derived CO: Satellite Carbon Monoxide Profiles and Total Columns

MOPITT Beta Derived CO version 109 provides geo-located carbon monoxide profiles and total column amounts from satellite radiances. The instrument was launched aboard NASA's Terra spacecraft on December 18, 1999, and data collection is ongoing. Each retrieval includes ancillary surface and cloud data, along with an estimated error.

Use Cases

• Modeling global tropospheric carbon monoxide transport based on retrieved profiles and total columns.
• Analyzing surface and cloud condition effects on carbon monoxide retrievals based on included ancillary data.
• Assessing retrieval uncertainty for climate models based on the estimated error accompanying each measurement.
• Monitoring long-term carbon monoxide trends from polar orbit based on data collection starting in 1999.

Strengths

• Includes an estimated error for each carbon monoxide retrieval.
• Data collection is ongoing, providing a continuous time series from launch in 1999.
• Contains ancillary data concerning surface properties and cloud conditions at retrieval locations.

Limitations

• Version 109 is an unvalidated beta product subject to recalibration.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the MOPITT instrument aboard the Terra spacecraft.

Time Range

Data collection ongoing since instrument launch on December 18,  1999.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:20:40.680325; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage from a sun-synchronous polar orbit.