OCO-2: NASA Satellite Retrievals for Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

OCO-2 Level 2 IMAP-DOAS data provides spatially ordered, geolocated retrievals from NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 mission. The dataset contains outputs from the IMAP-DOAS preprocessor, used for screening the official XCO2 product and for retrieving Solar-Induced Fluorescence from the 0.76 micrometer O2 A-band. It is derived from three high-resolution spectrometers on the LEOStar-2 spacecraft measuring reflected sunlight at specific near-infrared wavelengths.

Use Cases

• Screening atmospheric carbon dioxide (XCO2) retrievals based on the IMAP-DOAS preprocessor algorithm.
• Retrieving Solar-Induced Fluorescence (SIF) from vegetation using data from the 0.76 micrometer molecular oxygen (O2) A-band.
• Analyzing global spatial and temporal patterns of CO2 to characterize processes controlling its atmospheric buildup.
• Validating and improving climate and carbon cycle models with space-based, precision measurements.

Strengths

• Data is from a dedicated NASA mission (OCO-2) designed for high-precision, space-based CO2 measurements.
• The dataset represents the current operational processing version (11.2), superseding all older versions.
• Cross-platform presence on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov signals its importance and official status.

Limitations

• Column names and specific data schema are not provided in any source description.
• Dataset size and row counts are unknown across all platforms.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit details.

Provenance

Source

NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC)

Collection Method

Data collected by the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite's three high-resolution spectrometers and processed through the operational IMAP-DOAS preprocessor pipeline.

Time Range

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Freshness

2026-04-09 23:21:11.298079

Geography

Global coverage from satellite observations.