TEMPO Satellite: Atmospheric Composition and Cloud Data

NASA's TEMPO satellite provides high-resolution atmospheric data over North America, with a native spatial resolution of ~10 km². The dataset includes Level 1 radiance and irradiance measurements, Level 2 trace gas and ozone retrievals at native resolution, and Level 3 gridded products for nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, ozone, and cloud properties. All described data products reached a provisional validation status on December 9, 2024.

Use Cases

• Monitoring tropospheric nitrogen dioxide columns to assess urban and industrial pollution sources.
• Analyzing formaldehyde vertical columns as a tracer for volatile organic compounds and their role in ozone formation.
• Mapping total column ozone and cloud properties to study stratosphere-troposphere exchange and radiative effects.
• Calibrating atmospheric models using Level 1 radiance and irradiance data from the UV and visible bands.

Strengths

• Data products are provisionally validated as of December 9, 2024, indicating a defined quality assurance process.
• Provides data at the instrument's native high spatial resolution (~10 km²) as well as on regular gridded products.
• Cross-platform presence on Data.gov and NASA Earthdata signals importance and facilitates broader access.

Limitations

• Critical metadata such as row counts, file sizes, and specific column names are consistently missing across all platform entries.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without a link to the actual terms.
• Data freshness is unclear; the last updated dates are in 2026, which may be placeholder metadata for future ingestion.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing from the TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution) instrument, with processing through defined L0-1b, Level 2 retrieval, and Level 3 gridding algorithms.

Freshness

Last updated dates range from 2025-11-27 to 2026-04-09 across platforms, but these may be administrative placeholders.

Geography

Covers the TEMPO field of regard, which is nominally over North America.