OMPS-N21: Near Real-Time Aerosol Index from Satellite Swath

OMPS-N21 satellite data provides a near real-time aerosol index derived from normalized radiances at 340 and 378.5 nm wavelengths. The swath orbital product includes measurements of reflectivity, cloud fraction, and other ancillary atmospheric variables. This dataset supports monitoring of atmospheric aerosols like dust, ash, and smoke.

Use Cases

• Tracking aerosol plumes (e.g., dust storms, volcanic ash, smoke) based on the derived aerosol index.
• Assessing cloud contamination for atmospheric retrievals using the included cloud fraction data.
• Validating climate and air quality models with near real-time satellite reflectivity measurements.
• Studying aerosol optical properties using the normalized radiance data at specific wavelengths.

Strengths

• Provides near real-time data, indicated by the 'NRT' designation in the title.
• Originates from a authoritative source, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
• Contains specific derived geophysical parameters, including an aerosol index calculated from two wavelength pairs.

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing or conflicting; column names, row counts, and precise data formats are unknown.
• License information is inconsistently reported as 'other-license-specified' on some platforms and absent on others.
• The dataset description is repeated verbatim across platforms, suggesting potential documentation gaps.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing from the OMPS-N21 instrument.

Freshness

Last updated on 2026-04-10 according to one source, though this future date may indicate a metadata error.

Geography

Global swath coverage from satellite orbits.