OML1BRVZ: Aura OMI VIS Zoom-in Radiance Swaths

OMI/Aura Level 1B VIS Zoom-in Geolocated Earthshine Radiances (OML1BRVZ) Version-3 contains geo-located spectral radiance measurements from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument's visible light detectors. Data is collected in a special zoom-in mode, providing 60 ground pixels per swath with a resolution of 13 km x 24 km at nadir across a wavelength range of 349 to 504 nm. Files are stored in HDF-EOS format, with radiance values encoded as a 16-bit mantissa and 8-bit exponent.

Use Cases

• Analyzing high-resolution spatial patterns of atmospheric constituents based on visible spectral radiance.
• Calibrating or validating atmospheric models using geo-located Earth view measurements from a known sensor.
• Studying temporal changes in surface reflectance or cloud properties from the monthly spatial zoom-in measurements.
• Processing Level-1B radiance data into higher-level geophysical products for air quality monitoring.

Strengths

• Provides high spatial resolution data with 60 ground pixels per swath in zoom-in mode, as specified.
• Offers detailed spectral information within the visible wavelength range (349-504 nm).
• Data is structured in a standardized scientific format (HDF-EOS) with a defined encoding scheme for radiance values.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size beyond per-orbit estimate, and specific column names are unavailable across all sources.
• Spatial zoom-in measurements are only performed one day per month, limiting temporal coverage for the highest resolution data.
• Source conflict on license: one platform specifies 'other-license-specified' while another lists 'None'.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Aura satellite Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). Lead algorithm scientist is Dr. Marcel Dobber from KNMI.

Collection Method

Collected via satellite remote sensing in zoom-in measurement modes (spectral and spatial).

Freshness

2026-04-09 23:29:05.894359

Geography

Global coverage from satellite swaths.