The TROPOMI Methane (CH4) product is a critical component of the Level-2 processing suite, providing high-precision column concentrations of this potent greenhouse gas. As the second most important contributor to the anthropogenically enhanced greenhouse effect after CO2, accurate methane monitoring is essential for inverse modeling of global sources and sinks. TROPOMI achieves this through high surface sensitivity and excellent spatiotemporal coverage, utilizing absorption information from both the Oxygen-A Band (760 nm) and the SWIR spectral range.
Key Features and Applications
The product delivers the retrieved methane column along with a column averaging kernel (A), which describes the relationship between the retrieved column and the true atmospheric profile. This kernel is vital for validation exercises and source/sink inverse modeling. The Level-2 data files also include comprehensive diagnostic information, such as viewing geometry, fit residuals, retrieved albedo, and aerosol properties. These additional parameters are essential for post-process filtering and total retrieval error estimation.
Dataset Specifications
Examples of filenames (a.k.a. granules):
S5P_OFFL_L2__CH4____20260201T231910_20260202T010040_43039_03_020901_20260203T160126.nc S5P_NRTI_L2__CH4____20260201T234313_20260201T234813_43039_03_020901_20260202T005320.nc S5P_RPRO_L2__CH4____20220701T230527_20220702T004657_24439_03_020400_20230131T110442.nc |
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Elements in the filename separated by underscores after the initial "S5P": |
Dataset Specifications V2 | |
| Temporal Coverage |
Since 01-Jul-2021 Reprocessed (RPRO) dataset: from 30-Apr-2018 to 25-Jul-2022 |
| Spatial Coverage |
~2600 km swath Full daily surface coverage of radiance and reflectance measurements for latitudes > 7° and < -7°, and better than 95 % coverage for latitudes in the interval [-7°, 7°] |
| Spatial Resolution at Nadir |
7.0 x 7.0 km (across x along track), at beginning of mission 7.0 x 5.5 km (across x along track), since 6 August 2019 |
| Processor Version | 02.xx.xx, with x=any digit between 0 and 9 |
Dataset Specifications V1 | |
| Temporal Coverage |
From 30-Apr-2018 to 01-Jul-2021 |
| Spatial Coverage |
~2600 km swath Full daily surface coverage of radiance and reflectance measurements for latitudes > 7° and < -7°, and better than 95 % coverage for latitudes in the interval [-7°, 7°] |
| Spatial Resolution at Nadir |
7.0 x 7.0 km (across x along track), at beginning of mission 7.0 x 5.5 km (across x along track), since 6 August 2019 |
| Processor Version | 01.xx.xx, with x=any digit between 0 and 9 |
How to Access the Data
The data related to this product and to the other S5P/TROPOMI products are accessible via the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem (CDSE).
Documentation and Related Datasets
Technical documentation on the S5P/TROPOMI Level-1B and Level-2 products can be found on the SentiWiki S5P Products page.
Dataset Citation Guidelines
Users, who, in their research, use ESA Earth Observation data that have been assigned a DOI, are asked to use it when citing the data source in their publications:
Dataset Citation Guidelines V2 |
| Copernicus Sentinel-5P (processed by ESA), 2021, TROPOMI Level 2 Methane products. Version 02. European Space Agency. https://doi.org/10.5270/S5P-3lcdqiv |
Dataset Citation Guidelines V1 |
| Copernicus Sentinel-5P (processed by ESA), 2019, TROPOMI Level 2 Methane products. Version 01. European Space Agency. https://doi.org/10.5270/S5P-3p6lnwd |