OCO-3: Space Station Carbon Dioxide Retrieval Diagnostics

Version 11 is the current operational version of this dataset, superseding all older versions. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 (OCO-3) instrument, deployed to the International Space Station in May 2019, provides high-resolution spectrometer measurements of reflected sunlight to estimate atmospheric carbon dioxide. Its data products include geolocated XCO2 retrievals and diagnostic information from a Bayesian algorithm used for cloud screening and surface property estimation.

Use Cases

• Mapping global carbon dioxide concentrations based on space-based spectrometer measurements.
• Screening for cloud contamination in satellite data using the Oxygen-A Band retrieval algorithm.
• Estimating surface pressure and albedo from high-resolution O2 A-band spectra.
• Characterizing processes controlling atmospheric CO2 buildup with precision space-based measurements.
• Comparing atmospheric chemistry observations from the OCO-3 and OCO-2 satellite missions.

Strengths

• Provides data from a dedicated NASA mission designed for precise, space-based CO2 measurement.
• Incorporates three independently calibrated, high-resolution spectrometers for coincident measurements.
• Represents the current operational processing version (V11), indicating ongoing maintenance and updates.

Limitations

• Column names and dataset size (rows, file size) are unspecified across all sources, limiting understanding of structure and scale.
• License information is inconsistently reported, with one source stating 'other-license-specified' and others reporting 'None'.
• Metadata completeness is low, with author, row count, and size fields largely unknown.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by the OCO-3 instrument on the International Space Station using three high-resolution spectrometers.

Time Range

Data collection began after deployment in May 2019.

Freshness

2026-04-09 23:20:29.386227

Geography

Global coverage from the International Space Station's orbit.