OCO-2 L1B Calibration: Satellite Spectra for Atmospheric CO2 Instrument Calibration

NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) mission collects space-based measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The OCO-2 Level 1B Calibration product contains calibrated, geolocated spectra from three high-resolution spectrometers used for instrument calibration via Lunar, Solar, and Dark observations. Version 11.2 is the current version, superseding all older releases.

Use Cases

• Calibrating spectrometer response based on solar, lunar, and dark reference observations described in the product.
• Validating geolocation and boresight vector data for the OCO-2 instrument's calibration modes.
• Analyzing spectral characteristics in the near-infrared CO2 and molecular oxygen A-Band wavelengths mentioned in the description.

Strengths

• Data is from the first NASA mission specifically designed for precise space-based atmospheric CO2 measurements.
• Spectra are collected by three independent, high-resolution spectrometers, each with 1016 spectral elements.
• Version 11.2 is identified as the current and definitive version of this dataset.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The product format differs from the science product, specifically in the geolocation information provided.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Collected by the OCO-2 satellite's LEOStar-2 spacecraft carrying a single instrument with three spectrometers.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:04:36.678457; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage from satellite orbit.