OCO-3: Satellite Retrievals of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 (OCO-3) Level 2 dataset provides spatially ordered, geolocated retrievals of atmospheric carbon dioxide from the International Space Station. The data are produced by three high-resolution spectrometers measuring reflected sunlight in near-infrared CO2 and molecular oxygen A-band wavelengths. A primary cloud-screening algorithm uses a fast Bayesian retrieval on O2 A-band spectra to estimate surface pressure and albedo, flagging scenes with cloud or aerosol contamination.

Use Cases

• Mapping global and regional carbon dioxide sources and sinks based on high-precision column-averaged dry-air mole fraction (XCO2) retrievals.
• Screening for cloud and aerosol contamination in satellite observations using the Oxygen-A Band cloud screening algorithm.
• Estimating surface pressure and surface albedo from high-resolution O2 A-band spectra via the ABO2 Bayesian retrieval.
• Analyzing time-series trends in atmospheric CO2 concentrations from a space-based platform with near-global coverage.
• Validating and comparing carbon cycle models with spatially ordered, geolocated observational data.

Strengths

• Data is from a dedicated NASA mission designed for precision measurements of atmospheric CO2.
• Incorporates a sophisticated, physically-based cloud screening tool (ABO2 algorithm) to improve data quality.
• Cross-platform presence on data.gov and NASA Earthdata signals established importance and curation.

Limitations

• Critical metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all sources.
• The license is ambiguously specified as 'other-license-specified', requiring further investigation for use.
• Documentation gaps exist regarding the exact differences between Versions 11 and prior superseded versions.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Satellite-based remote sensing via the OCO-3 instrument on the International Space Station.

Time Range

Instrument deployed in May 2019; dataset temporal coverage is not explicitly stated.

Freshness

Last updated on 2026-04-09 according to data.gov entries.

Geography

Global coverage from the International Space Station's orbit.