TROPESS CrIS-SNPP: Carbon Monoxide Vertical Profiles During 2020 West Coast Fires

NASA's TROPESS project provides vertical profiles of atmospheric carbon monoxide at 14 levels from the surface to 0.1 hPa, captured during the peak of the 2020 U.S. West Coast wildfires. Data from the CrIS instrument on the Suomi-NPP satellite offers daily snapshots at a 14 km spatial resolution over the CONUS region. This dataset is processed using the MUSES optimal estimation algorithm to deliver the retrieved atmospheric state and formal uncertainties.

Use Cases

• Tracking wildfire pollution transport based on vertical carbon monoxide profiles.
• Validating atmospheric chemistry models using the 14-level vertical data and formal uncertainties.
• Analyzing temporal trends in emissions during the 2020 fire season from daily netCDF files.
• Mapping regional air quality impacts over CONUS using the 14 km resolution geospatial data.

Strengths

• Provides vertical distribution at 14 specific pressure levels from the surface to 0.1 hPa.
• Covers a defined, high-impact event period from 2020-08-01 to 2020-10-31.
• Data has a consistent, fine spatial resolution of 14 km at nadir.
• Cross-platform presence on Data.gov and NASA Earthdata signals importance and curation.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is medium; specific column names and row counts are not provided.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates (2026-04-09 vs. 2020-10-26) create uncertainty about provenance freshness.
• Spatial coverage is limited to the CONUS region (20N-60N, 150W-40W) for a specific three-month period.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), TROPESS project, Principal Investigator Kevin W. Bowman.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the CrIS instrument on the Suomi-NPP platform, processed with the MUSES optimal estimation algorithm.

Time Range

2020-08-01 to 2020-10-31

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:22:45.572359

Geography

CONUS region (20N-60N; 150W-40W)