OCO-2: Satellite Retrievals of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) mission provides spatially ordered, geolocated measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The dataset contains high-resolution spectrometer readings of reflected sunlight at specific near-infrared wavelengths to characterize CO2 buildup. It represents the current retrospective processing version, superseding all older data releases.

Use Cases

• Mapping global carbon dioxide concentrations based on satellite spectrometer data.
• Analyzing seasonal and regional variations in atmospheric CO2 from geolocated retrievals.
• Validating and improving terrestrial and oceanic carbon cycle models using space-based measurements.
• Studying the precision and resolution of CO2 measurements from the LEOStar-2 spacecraft instrument.

Strengths

• Data is from a dedicated NASA mission designed for precise, space-based CO2 measurement.
• Represents the current, authoritative processing version (11.2r), superseding all older releases.
• Measurements are derived from three high-resolution spectrometers targeting specific CO2 and O2 absorption bands.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all sources.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without further detail.
• Author information is missing, though the organization (NASA) is clearly stated.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Collected via the OCO-2 satellite's instrument suite of three high-resolution spectrometers measuring reflected sunlight.

Freshness

2026-04-09 23:33:27.025198

Geography

Global coverage from satellite observations.