Aerosol optical properties retrieved from the PACE OCI instrument using the Unified Aerosol Algorithm. The dataset provides global mapped measurements for variables describing aerosol loading, size partitioning, and absorption. It is produced by the OB_CLOUD organization from NASA Earthdata.
Use Cases
- Analyze global aerosol loading trends using the Aerosol_Optical_Depth_λ variable across different wavelengths.
- Study absorbing aerosol types and their distribution by applying the NUV_AerosolIndex feature in climate models.
- Investigate aerosol-cloud interactions by correlating NUV_AerosolOpticalDepthOverCloud with NUV_CloudOpticalDepth.
- Perform atmospheric correction for ocean-color studies by using aerosol optical depth as a contextual input.
- Evaluate the performance of aerosol transport models by comparing simulated outputs against the suite's core geophysical variables.
Strengths
- Provides a unified, algorithmically consistent suite of aerosol optical properties.
- Includes core variables for aerosol loading, size partitioning, and absorption essential for climate studies.
Limitations
- Specific row counts, temporal coverage, and spatial resolution are not provided in the input.
- Users must refer to per-file metadata for quality screening and wavelength availability, indicating potential data heterogeneity.
Provenance
- Source
- NASA Earthdata (PACE OCI Level-3 data)
- Collection Method
- Satellite remote sensing data processed with the Unified Aerosol Algorithm (UAA).
- Time Range
- null
- Freshness
- null
- Geography
- Global