OCO-2: Satellite-Based Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Measurements

NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) is the first mission designed for space-based measurements of atmospheric CO2 with the precision needed to characterize its buildup. The dataset provides column-averaged CO2 dry air mole fraction (XCO2) retrievals from three high-resolution spectrometers measuring reflected sunlight at specific near-infrared wavelengths. This version represents retrospective processing, where calibration is estimated from the full data timeseries for expected higher quality.

Use Cases

• Tracking global carbon fluxes and sinks based on column-averaged CO2 dry air mole fraction (XCO2) retrievals.
• Validating and improving atmospheric transport models using spatially and temporally resolved satellite measurements.
• Assessing regional contributions to atmospheric CO2 levels from the geolocated retrieval results.
• Studying the impact of calibration errors on data quality, referencing the documented ~300 m pointing error correction for 2020 data.

Strengths

• Represents NASA's first mission dedicated to precise, space-based atmospheric CO2 measurement.
• Underwent a documented correction process for a ~300 m pointing error affecting data from January 28 to December 31, 2020.
• Utilizes retrospective processing, calibrating against the full data timeseries for potentially higher quality.

Limitations

• Key metadata (column names, row count, file size) is unavailable across all sources, hindering detailed assessment.
• The 'last updated' date conflicts between sources (2026-04-09 and 2022-03-01), creating uncertainty about freshness.
• Data quality for 2020 is contingent on understanding the impact and correction of the AGAP file error.

Provenance

Source

NASA OCO-2 mission, processed by the GES DISC.

Collection Method

Algorithmic retrieval of XCO2 and other quantities from spectra collected by the OCO-2 satellite's three high-resolution spectrometers.

Time Range

Coverage includes at least January 28, 2020, to December 31, 2020, with corrections noted for that period; full mission timespan not specified.

Freshness

2026-04 09 23:32:40.562812 (conflicting source reports 2022-03-01)

Geography

Global, from satellite observations.