PACE HARP2: Global Mapped Aerosol and Ocean Optical Properties, Near Real-time

NASA's Ocean Biology DAAC produces near real-time (NRT) Level-3 global mapped data from the PACE HARP2 instrument. The FastMAPOL algorithm jointly retrieves aerosol and ocean color parameters, including aerosol optical thickness, single scattering albedo, chlorophyll-a concentration, and aerosol layer height. This version 3.0 product provides a snapshot of data from a short time period within a single orbit, using less-than-optimal ancillary inputs for speed.

Use Cases

• Studying aerosol transport and composition over oceans based on aerosol optical thickness, single scattering albedo, and fine/coarse mode fractions.
• Analyzing ocean biogeochemistry and phytoplankton dynamics based on chlorophyll-a concentration and angular remote sensing reflectance.
• Investigating aerosol-cloud interactions based on aerosol layer height and effective radius parameters.
• Validating and comparing satellite-derived ocean color products from different sensors or algorithms.

Strengths

• Algorithm jointly solves for aerosol and ocean parameters using a coupled atmosphere-ocean vector radiative-transfer model.
• Includes over 20 core geophysical variables, such as aerosol refractive index, volume density, and ocean surface wind speed.
• Data is processed with a near real-time latency, providing timely snapshots of environmental conditions.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Near real-time products use less-than-optimal ancillary data and calibration compared to standard science products.
• Row count and specific file formats are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

NASA Ocean Biology Distributed Active Archive Center (OB.DAAC), organization OB_CLOUD.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing data from the PACE HARP2 instrument, processed with the Fast Multi-Angle Polarimetric Ocean and Land (FastMAPOL) algorithm.

Freshness

Near real-time (NRT); update frequency is likely daily or per-orbit, but exact recency is unknown.

Geography

Global, over ocean.