The OCO‐2 and OCO‐3 ACOS Version 11 XCO 2 Data Products: A Benchmark Record for Space‐Based Global Carbon Cycle Research
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory‐2 (OCO‐2) and OCO‐3 have been observing Earth's atmosphere from space since September 2014 and August 2019, respectively. The version 11 (v11) Atmospheric Carbon Observations from Space (ACOS) Level 2 full physics (L2FP) retrieval algorithm has been used to provide estimates of the column‐averaged dry‐air mole fraction of carbon dioxide () from OCO measurements of surface reflected near‐infrared solar radiation. In this work, updates to the ACOS v11 retrieval algorithm are discussed, and the quality filtering and bias correction of the products are described. estimates from OCO‐2 and OCO‐3 are compared to Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) observations and to atmospheric inversion models, which serve as truth‐proxies for . In addition, a direct comparison of collocated soundings between OCO‐2 and OCO‐3 is performed. Variations in v11 over small areas show improvement in agreement between actual and theoretical uncertainties, suggesting a reduction in systematic errors compared to v10, especially for OCO‐3. There is reduced variance in the new v11 product relative to truth‐proxies, including less divergence in the values with time against models. The collocations of observations between OCO‐2 and OCO‐3 indicate an overall mean difference of <0.2 ppm across the overlapping time range. Furthermore, OCO‐2 and OCO‐3 agree better with each other than they do with the validation sources, suggesting a well conditioned and unified set of concentrations that can be used concurrently for carbon cycle studies to provide a benchmark record spanning September 2014 through August 2026.
Source: Earth and Space Science
DOI: 10.1029/2026ea005360
Authors: Thomas E. Taylor, Christopher W. O’Dell, Albert Chang, Abhishek Chatterjee, Cecilia Cheng, Lan Dang, Saswati Das, Brendan Fisher, Dejian Fu, Jonathan Hobbs, Nicole Jacobs, Graziela R. Keller, William Keely, Matthäus Kiel, Le Kuai, Thomas Kurosu, Alyn Lambert, Otto Lamminpää, Joshua Laughner, Richard Lee, Junjie Liu, Yuliya Marchetti, Steffen Mauceri, Gregory McGarragh, Aronne Merrelli, Robert R. Nelson, Greg Osterman, Fabiano Oyafuso, Sudhanshu Pandey, Vivienne H. Payne, Elise Rimsa, Robert Rosenberg, Dustin Roten, Edwin Sarkissian, Kacie Shelton, Gary Spiers, Cathy To, Paul O. Wennberg, Jia Zong, David F. Baker, Sourish Basu, Frédéric Chevallier, Sean Crowell, Liang Feng, Paul I. Palmer, Brad Weir, Kristan Morgan, Andrey Savtchenko, Matthias Buschmann, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Rigel Kivi, Manvendra Dubey, Frank Hase, Isamu Morino, Justus Notholt, Hirofumi Ohyama, Christof Petri, Markus Rettinger, Kimberly Strong, Ralf Sussmann, Yao Té, Voltaire A. Velazco, Thorsten Warneke, Debra Wunch, Minqiang Zhou, Dave Crisp, Annmarie Eldering, Mike Gunson
Institutions: Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, Colorado State University, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Schmidt Sciences, Goddard Space Flight Center, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, University of Toronto, University of California, Los Angeles, Planet Labs PBC (United States), University of Michigan, Utah Valley University, California Institute of Technology, Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Université Paris-Saclay, Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, University of Rochester, National Centre for Earth Observation, University of Edinburgh, Morgan State University, University of Bremen, University of Wollongong, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Sorbonne Université, Molécule aux Nanos-objets : Réactivité, Interactions et Spectroscopies, Deutscher Wetterdienst, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Spectra Research (United States)
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,650
OpenAlex ID: W7223211050