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Description

AER_RTAP provides aerosol properties retrieved using the RemoTAP algorithm. The suite includes variables for characterizing aerosol loading, size, and absorption. Use AER_RTAP for air-quality and climate studies, aerosol context for ocean-color atmospheric correction, and model evaluation.

Geophysical variables in this suite include:
• angstrom_440_670 — Aerosol Ångström exponent, 440–670 nm (unitless)
• aot — Aerosol optical thickness (unitless)
• fmf — Aerosol fine mode fraction (unitless)
• fvf — Aerosol fine mode volume fraction (unitless)
• lidar_bsca_total — Aerosol lidar backscatter coefficient (sr⁻¹ m⁻¹)
• lidar_depol_ratio — Aerosol lidar depolarization ratio (unitless)
• lidar_p11_pi — Aerosol phase function p11 at backscatter direction (unitless)
• mi — Aerosol refractive index, imaginary part (unitless)
• mr — Aerosol refractive index, real part (unitless)
• reff_coarse — Aerosol effective radius, coarse mode (µm)
• reff_fine — Aerosol effective radius, fine mode (µm)
• ssa — Aerosol single scattering albedo (unitless)

Version Description

Reprocessing of Ocean Color (OC) Datasets

Product Summary

Platforms
PACE
Instruments
SPEXone
Spatial Extent

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

Location
GLOBAL OCEAN
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
CARTESIAN
Temporal Extent
2024-02-05 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
C3555840363-OB_CLOUD
Data State
ACTIVE
Number of Files/Granules
446
Processing Level
3
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Ocean Color

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 SPEXone Level-3 Global Mapped Aerosol Optical Properties, RemoTAP Algorithm, version 3.0 [Data set]. NASA Ocean Biology Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/PACE/SPEXONE/L3M/AER_RTAP/3.0 Date Accessed: 2026-01-20

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
angstrom_440_670 Aerosol Angstrom exponent, 440 to 670 nm N/A float32 -32767 -0.5 to 3 N/A
aot Aerosol optical thickness N/A int16 -32767 0 to 30000 9.9999997473788E-5
fmf Aerosol fine mode fraction N/A float32 -32767 0 to 1 N/A
fvf Aerosol fine mode fraction by volume N/A float32 -32767 0 to 1 N/A
lat Latitude degrees_north float32 -999 -90 to 90 N/A
lidar_bsca_total lidar_bsca_total N/A float32 -32767 0 to 0.20000000298023 N/A
lidar_depol_ratio lidar_depol_ratio N/A float32 -32767 0 to 0.5 N/A
lidar_p11_pi lidar_p11_pi N/A float32 -32767 0 to 2 N/A
lon Longitude degrees_east float32 -999 -180 to 180 N/A
mi mi N/A float32 -32767 0 to 1 N/A
mr mr N/A float32 -32767 1 to 2 N/A
palette palette N/A uint8 N/A N/A N/A
reff_coarse Aerosol effective radius of coarse mode micron float32 -32767 0 to 10 N/A
reff_fine Aerosol effective radius of fine mode micron float32 -32767 0 to 10 N/A
ssa Aerosol single scattering albedo N/A int16 -32767 0 to 30000 9.9999997473788E-5
wavelength wavelengths nm int32 -32767 0 to 20000 N/A
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