OCO-3 Level 2 CO2 prior based on CO2 monthly flask record, global meteorology, and age of air, Forward Processing V11 (OCO3_L2_CO2Prior) at GES DISC

Version 11 is the current version of the data set. Older versions will no longer be available and are superseded by Version 11.

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory -3 (OCO-3) was deployed to the International Space Station in May, 2019. It is technically a single instrument, almost identical to OCO-2.

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory is the first NASA mission designed to collect space-based measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide with the precision, resolution, and coverage needed to characterize the processes controlling its buildup in the atmosphere.

OCO-3 incorporates three high-resolution spectrometers that make coincident measurements of reflected sunlight in the near-infrared CO2 near 1.61 and 2.06 micrometers and in molecular oxygen (O2) A-Band at 0.76 micrometers. The three spectrometers have different characteristics and are calibrated independently.

Oxygen-A Band cloud screening algorithm is one of the primary cloud screening tools implemented in the operational OCO processing pipeline. The algorithm was introduced and applied to early GOSAT data with further analysis performed on OCO-2 simulations.

The OCO ABO2 algorithm employs a fast Bayesian retrieval to estimate surface pressure and surface albedo from high resolution spectra of the molecular oxygen (O2) A-band, near 0.765 µm. The radiative transfer forward model (FM) assumes a clear-sky condition, i.e. Rayleigh scattering only, such that differences between the modeled and measured radiances are apparent when the measurement scene contains cloud or aerosol.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer THOMAS HEARTY
Last Updated March 31, 2025, 16:29 (UTC)
Created March 31, 2025, 16:29 (UTC)
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_@context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
catalog_@id https://data.nasa.gov/data.json
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
catalog_describedBy https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
citation OCO Science Team/Michael Gunson, AnnmarieEldering. 2024-10-29. OCO3_L2_CO2Prior. Version 11. OCO-3 Level 2 CO2 prior based on CO2 monthly flask record, global meteorology, and age of air, Forward Processing V11. Greenbelt, MD, USA. Archived by National Aeronautics and Space Administration, U.S. Government, Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC). https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datacollection/OCO3_L2_CO2Prior_11.html. Digital Science Data.
creator OCO Science Team/Michael Gunson, AnnmarieEldering
data-presentation-form Digital Science Data
graphic-preview-file https://docserver.gesdisc.eosdis.nasa.gov/public/project/OCO/OCO3_logo.jpg
harvest_object_id bf49f249-d478-44c3-b93a-d6ba92fc8207
harvest_source_id 61638e72-b36c-4866-9d28-551a3062f158
harvest_source_title DNG Legacy Data
identifier C3272764606-GES_DISC
issued 2021-05-31
landingPage https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov:443/search/concepts/C3272764606-GES_DISC.html
language {en-US}
metadata_type geospatial
modified 2021-05-31
programCode {026:001}
publisher NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/GCDC/GESDISC
release-place Greenbelt, MD, USA
resource-type Dataset
series-name OCO3_L2_CO2Prior
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 24d0fbcaadd65efa05bebf9ba07b28a0a0808d8300859ea35b1d76843deafcf1
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial -180.0 -90.0 180.0 90.0
temporal 2019-08-06T00:00:00Z/2024-11-11T00:00:00Z
theme {OCO-3,geospatial}