Uncertainty in nitrogen dioxide pollution, every 6 hours, from NASA's TROPESS chemical model
What it measures. Rather than nitrogen dioxide levels themselves, this records the uncertainty in the modeled NO2 estimates, expressed as the spread among an ensemble of model runs. A wider spread means less confidence in the value at that spot and altitude.
How it's made. It comes from a reanalysis (a model that blends satellite measurements with chemistry simulations) covering 2005-2021, gridded across the globe at multiple altitudes every six hours.
How & where you'd use it. Mainly a companion to the NO2 concentration data: it tells researchers how much to trust the pollution estimates in a given place, which matters for air-quality studies and validating models.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2005-01-01 → ongoing
- Measured byREANALYSIS MODELS (NOT APPLICABLE)
- Processing levelLevel 4
- Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
- StatusCOMPLETE
What you can do with it
- Map air pollutants — NO₂, aerosols, ozone
- Track greenhouse gases and Earth's energy budget
- Feed weather and air-quality analysis
Official description
The TROPESS Chemical Reanalysis NO2 Spread 6-Hourly 3-dimensional Product contains the nitrogen dioxide ensemble spread, a measure of data assimilation analysis uncertainty. The data are part of the Tropospheric Chemical Reanalysis v2 (TCR-2) for the period 2005-2021. TCR-2 uses JPL's Multi-mOdel Multi-cOnstituent Chemical (MOMO-Chem) data assimilation framework that simultaneously optimizes both concentrations and emissions of multiple species from multiple satellite sensors. The data files are written in the netCDF version 4 file format, and each file contains a year of data at 6-hourly resolution, and a spatial resolution of 1.125 x 1.125 degrees at 27 pressure levels between 1000 and 60 hPa. The principal investigator for the TCR-2 data is Miyazaki, Kazuyuki.
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="TRPSCRNO2S6H3D",
version="1",
bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9), # your area (W,S,E,N)
temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"), # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results) # stream straight from GES_DISC Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package. Official links
- Access the data via HTTPS. GET DATA
- Access the data via the OPeNDAP protocol. USE SERVICE API
- README Document VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Use the Earthdata Search to find and retrieve data sets across multiple data centers. GET DATA