The Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P) Level-2 methane product requires precise information on cloud occurrence at a spatial resolution finer than what is natively achievable by the TROPOMI instrument. To address this, a specific Level-2 auxiliary product was developed to characterize clouds within the TROPOMI field of view (FOV). By leveraging the "loose formation" flight configuration, where S5P follows the U.S. Suomi-National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite with a temporal separation of less than 5 minutes, the product utilizes co-located observations from the Visible Infra-red Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS).
Key Features and Applications
Beyond its primary function of supporting methane retrievals, this auxiliary data is essential for assessing the influence of cloud cover on other TROPOMI Level-2 products and investigating issues related to spatial co-registration. By providing high-resolution cloud information, the dataset enhances the overall accuracy of atmospheric trace gas measurements and facilitates more rigorous quality control across the S5P product suite.
Dataset Specifications
Examples of filenames (a.k.a. granules):
S5P_OFFL_L2__NP_BD3_20260201T231910_20260202T010040_43039_03_020003_20260203T131345.nc S5P_OFFL_L2__NP_BD6_20260201T231910_20260202T010040_43039_03_020003_20260203T131345.nc S5P_OFFL_L2__NP_BD7_20220701T230527_20220702T004657_24439_02_010300_20220703T125153.nc |
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Elements in the filename separated by underscores after the initial "S5P": |
Dataset Specifications V2 | |
| Temporal Coverage |
Since 29-Nov-2023 |
| 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 |
3.5 x 7.0 km (across x along track), at beginning of mission 3.5 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 04-May-2018 to 23-Nov-2023 |
| 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 |
3.5 x 7.0 km (across x along track), at beginning of mission 3.5 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 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), 2023, S5P-NPP Level 2 Cloud products. Version 02. European Space Agency. https://doi.org/10.5270/S5P-c8b3899 |
Dataset Citation Guidelines V1 |
| Copernicus Sentinel-5P (processed by ESA), 2019, S5P-NPP Level 2 Cloud products. Version 01. European Space Agency. https://doi.org/10.5270/S5P-91oxxtk |