TOMSN7L3daer: Daily Global UV Aerosol Index Grid

Nimbus-7 Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) version 8 data provides daily global gridded UV aerosol index values. The data are mapped to a global grid of 180 x 288 cells with a lat-long resolution of 1.00 x 1.25 degrees and are stored in ASCII format. These data were produced by the Laboratory for Atmospheres at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Use Cases

• Tracking long-range transport of dust and smoke plumes based on daily global UV aerosol index values.
• Analyzing spatial and temporal aerosol patterns using the 1.00 x 1.25 degree global grid.
• Validating atmospheric and climate models with satellite-derived aerosol index data.
• Studying aerosol-climate interactions from a historical satellite record.

Strengths

• Provides a consistent global spatial grid of 180 x 288 cells for uniform analysis.
• Data originates from the authoritative NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Laboratory for Atmospheres.
• Available on multiple major data platforms (Data.gov, NASA Earthdata), indicating established use.

Limitations

• Critical metadata conflicts: last updated date is listed as both 1993-05-06 and 2026-04-09 across sources.
• Column names and specific data formats (beyond ASCII) are not detailed in the provided metadata.
• The dataset's temporal coverage (start and end dates) is not explicitly stated.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

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

Freshness

Conflicting: 1993-05-06 (nasa_earthdata) and 2026-04-09 (datagov).

Geography

Global.