TES/Aura L2: Satellite Vertical Profiles of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

Vertical profile estimates of atmospheric carbon dioxide from the TES instrument on NASA's Aura satellite. The data includes associated errors, mapping matrices, covariances, and averaging kernels related to the TES forward model pressure grid. It is produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling global carbon dioxide transport based on vertical profile estimates.
• Validating satellite retrieval algorithms using the provided averaging kernels and covariances.
• Assessing atmospheric chemistry and air quality using the vertical mapping to the TES pressure grid.
• Estimating errors and uncertainties in satellite-based carbon dioxide measurements.

Strengths

• Data originates from NASA's Aura satellite, a major Earth observation mission.
• Includes error estimates, covariances, and averaging kernels, which are critical for scientific analysis.
• Last updated in March 2026, suggesting recent maintenance.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the TES instrument on the Aura spacecraft.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-05 19:53:02.315289; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global