OCO-3: Space Station Measurements of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

NASA's OCO-3 instrument, deployed to the International Space Station in May 2019, provides high-resolution atmospheric carbon dioxide measurements. Its three spectrometers measure reflected sunlight at specific near-infrared wavelengths to retrieve column-averaged dry-air mole fractions of CO2 (XCO2). The data's primary cloud-screening tool uses a fast Bayesian retrieval on the molecular oxygen A-band to estimate surface pressure and albedo.

Use Cases

• Monitoring regional carbon fluxes based on column-averaged XCO2 retrievals.
• Validating climate and carbon cycle models using precise, space-based CO2 measurements.
• Analyzing cloud and aerosol interference on retrievals using the Oxygen-A Band screening algorithm.
• Studying diurnal variations in atmospheric CO2 from the International Space Station's orbit.

Strengths

• Data is from a dedicated NASA mission designed for precise, space-based CO2 measurement.
• Version 11 represents a current, superseding processing standard, indicating ongoing curation.
• Instrument uses three independently calibrated, high-resolution spectrometers for coincident measurements.

Limitations

• Critical metadata like row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all sources.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without details.
• Data collection is limited to clear-sky conditions as per the described forward model.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Satellite retrievals from the OCO-3 instrument on the International Space Station.

Time Range

Collection began after deployment in May 2019.

Freshness

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

Geography

Global coverage from the International Space Station's orbit.