TES/Aura L2 Deuterium Oxide Nadir V008: Global Atmospheric Isotope Profiles

Global satellite observations from NASA's Aura spacecraft provide vertical profiles of deuterium oxide (heavy water vapor) in the troposphere. The data product contains retrieved species volume mixing ratios, temperature profiles, surface temperature, and associated diagnostic quantities like precision and vertical resolution for each of up to 3,200 retrievals per two-day global survey. Measurements were collected via the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) instrument, which operated from its launch on July 15, 2004, until data collection was completed.

Use Cases

• Tracking global water vapor transport and fractionation based on deuterium oxide volume mixing ratio profiles.
• Analyzing tropospheric temperature structure and surface temperature from retrieved atmospheric profiles.
• Studying the vertical resolution and precision of satellite-based atmospheric retrievals for model validation.
• Investigating changes in observation density and scan strategy before and after April 24, 2005.

Strengths

• Provides global spatial coverage from 16 consecutive satellite orbits per survey.
• Contains detailed per-observation diagnostic data including precision, total error, and vertical resolution.
• Data collection is complete, offering a finalized record from the TES instrument mission.

Limitations

• Column names and exact data structure are not specified in the available metadata.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist between sources (2026-04-09 on datagov vs. 2018-01-22 on nasa_earthdata).
• File size and row counts are not documented, limiting assessment of data volume.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) aboard the Aura spacecraft, using radiative transfer modeling and retrieval algorithms.

Time Range

2004-07-15 to mission completion (exact end date not specified)

Freshness

2026-04 09 20:25:25.059402 (datagov)

Geography

Global