OCO-2 L1B Calibration: Calibrated Spectra for Satellite Instrument Validation

Version 11.2 is the current version of this dataset, superseding all older versions. It contains Level 1B calibrated spectra from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite, specifically from calibration mode observations like Lunar, Solar, and Dark measurements. The data includes raw data numbers from three high-resolution spectrometers measuring reflected sunlight at 0.76, 1.61, and 2.06 micrometers, with each spectral band containing 1016 elements.

Use Cases

• Validating the radiometric calibration of the OCO-2 spectrometers based on Lunar and Solar observations.
• Characterizing instrument noise and dark current levels using the Dark observation data.
• Comparing calibration product geolocation (boresight vector) with science product geolocation for data fusion.
• Assessing spectral performance across the three independent spectrometer bands (O2 A-Band, weak CO2, strong CO2).

Strengths

• Provides data from a dedicated NASA mission (OCO-2) designed for high-precision atmospheric CO2 measurement.
• Contains calibrated raw data from three independent spectrometers, each with 1016 spectral elements per band.
• Dataset is actively maintained, with a last updated date of 2026-03-05 noted on one platform.

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing from all sources, including column names, row count, file size, and specific license information.
• The description is duplicated across platforms, suggesting potential syndication rather than independent enrichment.
• The geolocation information differs from the standard science product, which may complicate direct comparison for some analyses.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Collected by the OCO-2 satellite's single instrument, which incorporates three high-resolution spectrometers, and processed to Level 1B.

Freshness

2026-03-05 19:58:09.737349

Geography

Global, from a sun-synchronous orbit.