TL2OCSLN_7: Carbonyl Sulfide Atmospheric Profiles from Aura Satellite

TES/Aura Level 2 Carbonyl Sulfide Lite Nadir Version 7 data provides vertical profiles of carbonyl sulfide (OCS) concentrations retrieved from nadir-viewing satellite observations. Each global survey consists of up to 16 consecutive orbits, performing approximately 3,200 atmospheric retrievals over a two-day cycle. The data includes retrieved concentration profiles, estimated errors, geolocation, quality flags, and surface characteristics for each observation target.

Use Cases

• Tracking global carbonyl sulfide transport and sources based on retrieved atmospheric concentration profiles.
• Validating atmospheric chemistry models using satellite-derived vertical profile data and error estimates.
• Analyzing temporal trends in atmospheric sulfur compounds from the time-series of global survey observations.
• Studying surface-atmosphere exchange processes using nadir observation data that includes surface characteristics.

Strengths

• Provides vertical atmospheric profiles rather than just column measurements, offering detailed altitude information.
• Includes estimated errors for each retrieval, allowing for uncertainty quantification in analyses.
• Covers global spatial coverage through satellite observations from 16 consecutive orbits per survey.

Limitations

• Data collection is complete (mission ended), limiting temporal coverage to historical observations only.
• Column names and specific data structure are unknown from available metadata, complicating direct usage.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates (2026-04-09 vs 2015-12-31) create uncertainty about metadata freshness.

Provenance

Source

NASA Aura satellite Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) instrument

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing using radiative transfer modeling and spectral retrieval algorithms

Time Range

From launch (July 15, 2004) through mission completion date

Freshness

2026-04-09 20:25:34.475784 (most recent update across platforms)

Geography

Global coverage from satellite orbits