OMHCHOG: Daily Global Satellite Formaldehyde Measurements

Global daily satellite observations of formaldehyde (HCHO) total vertical column density, gridded at a 0.25x0.25 degree resolution. The OMHCHOG product bins pixel-level data from the OMI/Aura instrument without averaging, preserving raw data points for user-defined filtering. Scientists can use this Level-2G product to generate custom Level-3 global maps for atmospheric chemistry research.

Use Cases

• Tracking formaldehyde emissions from wildfires and industrial sources based on total vertical column HCHO measurements.
• Studying atmospheric chemistry and photochemical smog formation using ancillary geolocation and quality flag parameters.
• Creating custom global air quality maps by applying user-defined filtering schemes to the gridded pixel data.
• Validating atmospheric models with daily, global satellite observations of a key trace gas.

Strengths

• Provides global daily coverage from 14-15 satellite orbits per file.
• Preserves raw pixel data within each grid cell for flexible user analysis, as described in the product documentation.
• Contains a detailed set of parameters including total vertical column HCHO, standard errors, and quality flags.

Limitations

• Metadata conflicts exist: one platform lists a last updated date of 2026-04-09 (future date), while another shows no update information.
• Specific column names and dataset size/row counts are not provided in the available metadata.
• License information is inconsistently reported as 'other-license-specified' on one platform and absent on another.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing data from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on the Aura satellite, processed into a Level-2G gridded product.

Time Range

Daily coverage.

Freshness

2026-04-09 23:29:30.653480

Geography

Global.