OCO-2 Gridded Bias-Corrected XCO2 and SIF Daily Data

NASA's OCO-2 Gridded bias-corrected XCO2, SIF, and other select fields dataset provides daily, global maps of atmospheric carbon dioxide mole fraction. The data are produced by applying local kriging to daily aggregates of Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite measurements. This Level 3 product is available across multiple government data platforms, indicating its established use in climate and Earth system science.

Use Cases

• Tracking global and regional carbon dioxide sources and sinks based on gridded XCO2 fields.
• Validating atmospheric transport models using daily, bias-corrected satellite observations.
• Studying the relationship between carbon uptake and plant activity using concurrent Solar-Induced Fluorescence (SIF) data.
• Monitoring changes in atmospheric composition over time from the continuous OCO-2 satellite record.

Strengths

• Data originates from NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite, a primary source for space-based CO2 measurements.
• Employes a statistical interpolation method (local kriging/optimal interpolation) to create continuous, gridded fields from satellite swaths.
• Is identified as the latest version (V4), with Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) pointing to this collection.

Limitations

• Column names and a precise row count are not provided in the available metadata, limiting immediate understanding of the data structure.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.
• Update timestamps conflict between platforms, with one showing 2026-04-09 and another 2024-03-30.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Created by applying local kriging to daily aggregates of Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) bias-corrected satellite data.

Freshness

2026-04-09 23:34:53.681422

Geography

Global