TOMSN7L2: Satellite Swath Measurements of Ozone and Aerosols

Global orbital swath data from the Nimbus-7 satellite provides total column ozone, UV aerosol index, and surface reflectivity at approximately 50x50 km resolution. The dataset includes auxiliary parameters such as cloud fraction, cloud pressure, SO2 index, and solar viewing angles. These data are stored in HDF-EOS5 format and were produced by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Laboratory for Atmospheres.

Use Cases

• Monitoring stratospheric ozone depletion based on total column ozone measurements.
• Tracking volcanic sulfur dioxide plumes using the SO2 index parameter.
• Analyzing aerosol transport and type via the UV aerosol index.
• Correcting surface reflectance in other satellite data using the Lambertian effective surface reflectivity.
• Studying cloud-aerosol interactions using cloud fraction and cloud pressure data.

Strengths

• Contains multiple derived atmospheric parameters from a single instrument, including total ozone, aerosol index, and surface reflectivity.
• Data is produced by a recognized authority, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Laboratory for Atmospheres.
• Cross-platform presence on Data.gov and NASA EarthData suggests established use and importance.

Limitations

• Critical metadata conflicts: last updated date differs significantly between sources (1993 vs. 2026).
• Column names and exact row/size counts are not provided by any source.
• License is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without further detail.

Provenance

Source

Laboratory for Atmospheres at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Code 614).

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the Nimbus-7 Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument.

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:43:44.391494 (from Data.gov, conflicting with NASA EarthData's 1993 date)

Geography

Global