Daily Global Gridded Aerosol Optical Depth and Albedo from OMI/Aura

OMAEROG provides daily global gridded data on aerosol optical depth and single scattering albedo at a 0.25 x 0.25 degree resolution. The product is based on the OMI/Aura Level-2 multi-wavelength algorithm using up to 20 wavelength bands between 331 nm and 500 nm. It is produced by the GES DISC organization from NASA's OMI instrument data.

Use Cases

• Analyze daily spatial patterns of aerosol extinction optical depth across global 0.25-degree grids.
• Investigate the relationship between single scattering albedo and ancillary parameters like cloud fraction and terrain height.
• Apply custom data filtering schemes using the extensive quality flags to create new gridded aerosol products.
• Study aerosol properties from multi-wavelength data across 20 bands between 331 nm and 500 nm.
• Correlate satellite viewing angles and solar angles with retrieved aerosol indices for algorithm validation.

Strengths

• Global coverage at a consistent 0.25 x 0.25 degree grid resolution.
• Includes data from approximately 15 satellite orbits per daily file.
• Provides up to 20 wavelength bands for multi-wavelength aerosol analysis.
• Contains extensive ancillary data and quality flags beyond core aerosol parameters.

Limitations

• Maximum daily file size is about 78 MB, which may require significant storage for long-term studies.
• Data pixels within a grid box are saved without averaging, requiring user-applied filtering for analysis.
• Data is stored in HDF-EOS5 format, which requires specific libraries for access and processing.

Provenance

Source

GES DISC, based on data from the OMI instrument on NASA's Aura satellite.

Collection Method

Pixel-level OMAERO products are binned into 0.25 x 0.25 degree global grids without averaging.

Time Range

Daily coverage, with data from all scenes between 00:00:00 and 23:59:59.9999 UTC.

Freshness

Daily update frequency.

Geography

Global.