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Description

The AER_UAA suite provides aerosol optical properties retrieved using the Unified Aerosol Algorithm. Core variables include measures that describe aerosol loading, size partitioning, and absorption. A companion product in the same family provides the UV Absorbing Aerosol Index (UVAI_UAA). Typical uses include air-quality and climate analyses, aerosol context for ocean-color atmospheric correction, trend studies, and model evaluation; users should refer to per-file metadata/flags for quality screening and wavelength availability.
Core geophysical variables in this suite include:
• Aerosol_Optical_Depth_λ - Aerosol optical thickness at λ nm
• NUV_AerosolIndex — Near-UV aerosol index (unitless)
• NUV_AerosolOpticalDepthOverCloud — Near-UV aerosol optical depth over cloud (unitless)
• NUV_CloudOpticalDepth — Near-UV cloud optical depth (unitless)

Version Description

Reprocessing of Ocean Color (OC) Datasets

Product Summary

Platforms
PACE
Instruments
OCI
Spatial Extent

N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

Location
GLOBAL OCEAN
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
CARTESIAN
Temporal Extent
2024-03-05 to Present
Data Partner
Ocean Biology Processing Group (OBPG) ,
Ocean Biology Distributed Active Archive Center (OB.DAAC), Global Change Data Center, Earth Sciences Division, Science and Exploration Directorate, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA (NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/GCDC/OB.DAAC)
Concept ID
C3620140231-OB_CLOUD
Data State
ACTIVE
Number of Files/Granules
1580
Processing Level
3
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Aerosol Optical Depth/Thickness ,
UV Aerosol Index

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group. (2025). PACE OCI Level-3 Global Mapped Aerosol Optical Properties, Unified Aerosol Algorithm (UAA) Algorithm Data, version 3.1 [Data set]. NASA Ocean Biology Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/PACE/OCI/L3M/AER_UAA/3.1 Date Accessed: 2026-01-22

Documents

Variables

Variables are a set of physical properties whose values determine the characteristics or behavior of something. For example, temperature and pressure are variables of the atmosphere. Parameters and variables can be used interchangeably. Variable level attributes provide individual information for each variable.

The Name in this table is the variable name. Fill value indicates missing or undefined data points in a variable. Valid range is the range of values the variable can store. Scale factor is used to increase or decrease the size of an object and can be used to correct for distortion. For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.

Name Description Units Data Type Fill Value Valid Range Scale Factor
AAOD_354 Absorbing aerosol optical thickness at 354 nm N/A float32 -32767 -1 to 5 N/A
AAOD_388 Absorbing aerosol optical thickness at 388 nm N/A float32 -32767 -1 to 5 N/A
AAOD_550 Absorbing aerosol optical thickness at 550 nm N/A float32 -32767 -1 to 5 N/A
Aerosol_Optical_Depth_354 Aerosol optical thickness at 354 nm N/A float32 -32767 -1 to 5 N/A
Aerosol_Optical_Depth_388 Aerosol optical thickness at 388 nm N/A float32 -32767 -1 to 5 N/A
Aerosol_Optical_Depth_480 Aerosol optical thickness at 480 nm N/A float32 -32767 -1 to 5 N/A
Aerosol_Optical_Depth_550 Aerosol optical thickness at 550 nm N/A float32 -32767 -1 to 5 N/A
Aerosol_Optical_Depth_670 Aerosol optical thickness at 670 nm N/A float32 -32767 -1 to 5 N/A
Aerosol_Optical_Depth_870 Aerosol optical thickness at 870 nm N/A float32 -32767 -1 to 5 N/A
Aerosol_Optical_Depth_1240 Aerosol optical thickness at 1240 nm N/A float32 -32767 -1 to 5 N/A
Aerosol_Optical_Depth_2200 Aerosol optical thickness at 2200 nm N/A float32 -32767 -1 to 5 N/A
lat Latitude degrees_north float32 -999 -90 to 90 N/A
lon Longitude degrees_east float32 -999 -180 to 180 N/A
NUV_AerosolCorrCloudOpticalDepth NUV_AerosolCorrCloudOpticalDepth N/A float32 -32767 1 to 50 N/A
NUV_AerosolIndex NUV_AerosolIndex N/A float32 -32767 -5 to 10 N/A
NUV_AerosolOpticalDepthOverCloud_354 NUV Aerosol Optical Depth Over Cloud at 354 nm N/A float32 -32767 -0.050000000745058 to 4 N/A
NUV_AerosolOpticalDepthOverCloud_388 NUV Aerosol Optical Depth Over Cloud at 388 nm N/A float32 -32767 -0.050000000745058 to 4 N/A
NUV_AerosolOpticalDepthOverCloud_550 NUV Aerosol Optical Depth Over Cloud at 550 nm N/A float32 -32767 -0.050000000745058 to 4 N/A
NUV_CloudOpticalDepth NUV_CloudOpticalDepth N/A float32 -32767 0 to 5 N/A
Optical_Depth_Ratio_Small_Ocean_used Optical_Depth_Ratio_Small_Ocean_used N/A float32 -32767 0 to 1 N/A
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