OCO-2: Satellite-Based Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Retrievals

NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) mission provides space-based measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). The dataset contains geolocated XCO2 retrieval results and algorithm diagnostic information from three high-resolution spectrometers measuring reflected sunlight at specific near-infrared and oxygen A-band wavelengths. This version (10r) represents a retrospective processing, where calibration data is estimated from the full timeseries, and includes corrected data for a period in 2020 affected by a geolocation error.

Use Cases

• Quantifying regional carbon fluxes based on XCO2 retrieval uncertainties and averaging kernels.
• Studying the impact of aerosols on carbon dioxide measurements using aerosol optical depth and albedo data.
• Validating and calibrating terrestrial carbon cycle models with global, space-based CO2 concentration time series.
• Analyzing correlations between surface type and measured atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.
• Investigating solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence as a proxy for photosynthetic activity alongside CO2 data.

Strengths

• Data underwent a specific correction process for a known ~300 meter pointing error affecting files from January 28 to December 31, 2020.
• Represents the first NASA mission designed specifically for precise, space-based atmospheric CO2 measurements with global coverage.
• Retrospective processing (version 10r) uses the full timeseries for calibration, which is expected to yield slightly higher quality.

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing: row count, file size, and specific column names are unknown across all sources.
• A conflict exists in the 'last updated' date: one source reports 2026-04-09, while another reports 2022-03-01.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without further details.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), OCO-2 mission.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the LEOStar-2 spacecraft carrying three high-resolution spectrometers.

Time Range

Covers at least from January 28, 2020, onward, with specific corrections applied to data through December 31, 2020.

Freshness

2026-04-09 (most recent update reported)

Geography

Global coverage from space-based measurements.