OCO-3: Space-Based Atmospheric CO2 and Meteorological Soundings

Version 10r is the current version of the OCO-3 Level 2 meteorological parameters dataset. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 (OCO-3) instrument, deployed to the International Space Station in May 2019, uses three high-resolution spectrometers to measure reflected sunlight for precise atmospheric carbon dioxide characterization. Its ABO2 algorithm employs a fast Bayesian retrieval to estimate surface pressure and albedo from O2 A-band spectra, aiding in cloud and aerosol screening.

Use Cases

• Characterizing global carbon dioxide fluxes based on high-resolution spectrometer measurements.
• Screening for clouds and aerosols in satellite soundings using the Oxygen-A Band algorithm.
• Estimating surface pressure and albedo via the fast Bayesian ABO2 retrieval.
• Assimilating interpolated meteorological parameters from global models into atmospheric transport simulations.
• Comparing CO2 measurement techniques between the OCO-3 and earlier OCO-2 missions.

Strengths

• Data is from a current, operational NASA mission (OCO-3) with a specific deployment date of May 2019.
• Provides measurements from three independently calibrated, high-resolution spectrometers targeting specific wavelengths (0.76, 1.61, 2.06 µm).
• Cross-platform presence on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov signals its importance and official curation.

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing: no column names, row counts, or file sizes are provided in any source.
• The 'last updated' date of 2026-04 09 appears inconsistent and may be a placeholder or error.
• Documentation gaps exist, as the license is vaguely listed as 'other-license-specified'.

Provenance

Source

NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 (OCO-3) instrument on the International Space Station, processed by GES DISC.

Collection Method

Satellite-based remote sensing via spectrometer measurements of reflected sunlight, with meteorological parameters interpolated from a global assimilation model.

Time Range

Likely from May 2019 (instrument deployment) onward, but exact range not specified.

Freshness

2026-04-09 23:19:55.714997

Geography

Global, from the International Space Station's orbit.