OCO-3: Calibration Spectra for Atmospheric CO2 Monitoring

Version 11 is the current version of this dataset, superseding all older versions. It contains Level 1B calibrated spectra from the OCO-3 instrument, which was deployed to the International Space Station in May 2019. The data results from calibration mode measurements, such as lunar, solar, and dark observations, and differs from science products by reporting boresight vector direction instead of per-sounding geolocation.

Use Cases

• Calibrating spectrometer response based on lunar, solar, and dark observations.
• Validating atmospheric CO2 retrieval algorithms by comparing calibration-mode data with science products.
• Monitoring long-term instrument performance trends for the OCO-3 mission.
• Characterizing the spectral response of three independent near-infrared spectrometers.

Strengths

• Represents the authoritative Version 11 release, superseding all prior versions.
• Provides data from a high-precision NASA mission specifically designed for atmospheric CO2 measurement.
• Contains measurements from three independent, high-resolution spectrometers across specific near-infrared wavelengths.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all sources.
• The dataset's geolocation information is limited to boresight vector direction, unlike the science product which provides per-sounding data.
• License information is inconsistently reported as 'other-license-specified' on some platforms and null on others.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Collected by the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 (OCO-3) instrument on the International Space Station.

Time Range

Data collection began after deployment in May 2019; specific end date is not provided.

Freshness

Last updated on 2026-04-09 according to datagov platform entries.

Geography

Global coverage from the International Space Station's orbit.