OCO-3: Orbiting Carbon Observatory Level 2 Retrievals

NASA's OCO-3 Level 2 Standard dataset provides geolocated atmospheric carbon dioxide (XCO2) retrievals from the instrument deployed on the International Space Station in May 2019. The data are produced by three high-resolution spectrometers measuring reflected sunlight in near-infrared CO2 and molecular oxygen bands. These measurements support the characterization of processes controlling atmospheric CO2 buildup.

Use Cases

• Monitoring regional carbon fluxes based on high-resolution XCO2 retrievals.
• Validating atmospheric transport models using coincident O2 A-band measurements for surface pressure.
• Screening for cloud and aerosol contamination using the Oxygen-A Band cloud screening algorithm.
• Analyzing long-term trends in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations from the space station's orbit.

Strengths

• Data is from a NASA mission specifically designed for precise, space-based CO2 measurement.
• Incorporates three independently calibrated spectrometers for coincident measurement of multiple spectral bands.
• Represents the current Version 11r of retrospective processing, superseding older versions.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all sources.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.
• The radiative transfer forward model assumes clear-sky conditions, which may limit accuracy in cloudy or aerosol-heavy scenes.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Satellite-based measurements from the 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.

Geography

Global coverage from the International Space Station's orbit.