TROPESS CrIS-JPSS1: Global Daily Ammonia Vertical Profiles

NASA's TROPESS CrIS-JPSS1 L2 Ammonia dataset provides the vertical distribution of atmospheric ammonia (NH3) from the CrIS instrument on the NOAA-20 satellite. It uses the MUSES optimal estimation algorithm to produce daily global files with a 14 km spatial resolution across 15 vertical levels. The standard forward stream product covers the period from April 2021 to the present.

Use Cases

• Tracking global ammonia emission hotspots and trends based on vertical concentration profiles.
• Modeling atmospheric chemistry and aerosol formation using the 15-level vertical state data.
• Validating air quality and chemical transport models with satellite-derived NH3 observations.
• Analyzing diurnal and seasonal variability of ammonia from the continuous daily time series.

Strengths

• Provides a continuous global daily record from April 2021 onward, enabling trend analysis.
• Offers detailed vertical resolution with data reported at 15 levels from the surface to 0.1 hPa.
• Uses a sophisticated retrieval algorithm (MUSES) that incorporates formal uncertainties and diagnostics.

Limitations

• Column names and a precise row count are not provided in the available metadata, limiting immediate understanding of data structure.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without clear terms.
• Data files are in netCDF4 format, which may require specialized software or libraries for analysis.

Provenance

Source

NASA TROPESS project, GES DISC, with Principal Investigator Kevin W. Bowman.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the CrIS instrument on the JPSS-1 (NOAA-20) platform, processed with the MUSES optimal estimation algorithm.

Time Range

2021-04-01 to present

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:23:12.956680

Geography

Global