OMOCLO: Satellite Chlorine Dioxide Measurements for Ozone Research

Approximately 14 orbits per day provide slant column chlorine dioxide (OClO) measurements from the Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument. The Level-2 product includes standard errors, quality flags, and geolocation data for the sunlit portion of each orbit. Files are stored in HDF-EOS5 or netCDF format, with individual orbit file sizes ranging from about 7.5 MB to 20 MB.

Use Cases

• Tracking polar ozone depletion events based on OClO slant column measurements.
• Validating atmospheric chemistry models using satellite-derived halogen species data.
• Assessing data quality for satellite retrievals using the included standard errors (rms and sigma) and quality flags.
• Conducting geospatial analysis of atmospheric composition using the provided geolocation information.

Strengths

• Data is produced by a recognized scientific team, with algorithm leads from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center explicitly named.
• Cross-platform presence on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov signals its importance and official status.
• The description provides concrete technical details, including approximate daily orbit count (14) and maximum file sizes (7.5-20 MB).

Limitations

• Column names and exact row counts are not provided in any source, limiting precise understanding of data structure.
• Sources conflict on collection version (3 vs. 4) and associated file format (HDF-EOS5 vs. netCDF), creating ambiguity for users.
• Metadata completeness is low on some platform entries, with missing tags, size, rows, license, and author information.

Provenance

Source

NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC)

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing data from the Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI).

Freshness

2026-04-09 23:18:42.478391

Geography

Global, from satellite swaths.