OCO-3: NASA Satellite Raw Spectrometer Data for Atmospheric CO2

OCO-3 Level 1A data provides depacketized raw spectrometer measurements from the NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 mission. The dataset contains calibrated engineering data and raw data numbers from three high-resolution spectrometers measuring reflected sunlight at specific near-infrared and oxygen A-band wavelengths. This data serves as the primary input for generating higher-level atmospheric carbon dioxide products.

Use Cases

• Calibrating higher-level (L1B/L2) carbon dioxide retrieval algorithms based on raw spectrometer data numbers.
• Analyzing instrument performance and spectral characteristics across three independent spectrometer bands.
• Studiating atmospheric absorption features for CO2 near 1.61 and 2.06 micrometers and O2 at 0.76 micrometers.
• Validating spacecraft engineering data correlated with science observations in Sample Mode operation.

Strengths

• Represents the current Version 11, superseding all older versions for consistency.
• Provides high-resolution spectral data with 1016 elements per measurement band.
• Data is hosted on multiple authoritative platforms (NASA EarthData, Data.gov), indicating importance and reliability.

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing or conflicting across sources: row count, size, and specific column names are unknown.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without clear terms.
• Documentation appears limited to technical descriptions, with no user guides or sample data evident.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Collected by the OCO-3 instrument on the LEOStar-2 spacecraft, incorporating three independently calibrated spectrometers.

Time Range

null

Freshness

2026-04-09 23:32:28.414225

Geography

Global, from satellite orbit.