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Earth Sciences Division
Operational

Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2)

Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) is NASA’s first dedicated Earth remote sensing satellite to study atmospheric carbon dioxide from space. OCO-2 will be collecting space-based global measurements of atmospheric CO2 with the precision, resolution, and coverage needed to characterize sources and sinks on regional scales. OCO-2 will also be able to quantify CO2 variability over the seasonal cycles year after year.

Launch Date
July 2, 2014
Class
Flight Project
Website

Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) is NASA’s first dedicated Earth remote sensing satellite to study atmospheric carbon dioxide from space. OCO-2 will be collecting space-based global measurements of atmospheric CO2 with the precision, resolution, and coverage needed to characterize sources and sinks on regional scales. OCO-2 will also be able to quantify CO2 variability over the seasonal cycles year after year.

Related Publications

2025. "Fiducial Reference Measurements for Greenhouse Gases (FRM4GHG): Validation of Satellite (Sentinel-5 Precursor, OCO-2, and GOSAT) Missions Using the COllaborative Carbon Column Observing Network (COCCON).", Remote Sensing, 17 (5): 734 [10.3390/rs17050734] [Journal Article/Letter]

2025. "Comparisons of the v11.1 Orbiting Carbon Observatory‐2 (OCO‐2) XCO2 Measurements With GGG2020 TCCON.", Earth and Space Science, 12 (7): e2024EA003935 [10.1029/2024ea003935] [Journal Article/Letter]

2022. "OCO-2 GEOS Level 3 daily, 0.5x0.625 assimilated CO2 V10r.", Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC), Greenbelt, MD, USA [10.5067/Y9M4NM9MPCGH] [Dataset]

2022. "OCO-2 GEOS Level 3 monthly, 0.5x0.625 assimilated CO2 V10r.", Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC), Greenbelt, MD, USA [10.5067/BGFIODET3HZ8] [Dataset]

2025. "Quantification of regional net CO2 flux errors in the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) v10 model intercomparison project (MIP) ensemble using airborne measurements.", Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 25 (3): 1725-1748 [10.5194/acp-25-1725-2025] [Journal Article/Letter]