TOMS/N7 Near UV Aerosol Index and LER 1-Orbit L2 50x50 km

NASA's MEaSUREs program provides a 40-year Fundamental Climate Data Record of calibrated radiances and aerosol properties derived from satellite near-UV observations. The Level-2 orbital product includes cloud fraction, UV aerosol index, and reflectivity at approximately 50x50 km nadir resolution. Data from TOMS instruments flown on Nimbus-7, Meteor-3, Earth Probe, and ADEOS satellites are stored in HDF5 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing aerosol transport and air quality based on the UV aerosol index.
• Studying cloud properties and their interaction with aerosols using cloud fraction and optical depth.
• Monitoring long-term atmospheric changes using the multi-decadal calibrated radiance record.
• Correcting surface reflectance models using ancillary ocean corrected surface albedo data.
• Assessing satellite instrument performance across different platforms (Nimbus-7, Earth Probe, etc.).

Strengths

• Provides a multi-decadal (40-year) record of satellite observations for climate research.
• Contains specific geophysical variables like UV aerosol index, cloud fraction, and normalized radiance.
• Data is part of NASA's authoritative MEaSUREs program for creating Fundamental Climate Data Records.
• Derived from observations by multiple satellite instruments (TOMS on Nimbus-7, Meteor-3, Earth Probe, ADEOS).

Limitations

• Key metadata like row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all sources.
• The last updated date conflicts between sources (1993 vs. 2026), suggesting potential metadata inconsistency.
• The spatial resolution of 50x50 km may be coarse for some localized atmospheric studies.

Provenance

Source

Goddard Earth Sciences (GES) Data and Information Services Center (DISC)

Collection Method

Derived from satellite near-UV observations by Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instruments.

Time Range

1978-2005

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:43:31.183711

Geography

Global, over continents (for aerosol properties).