Aeronet AOD

Published by National Aeronautics and Space Administration | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | Metadata Last Checked: October 28, 2025 | Last Modified: 2025-07-17

Sun photometer measurements of the direct (collimated) solar radiation provide information to calculate the columnar aerosol optical depth (AOD). AOD can be used to compute columnar water vapor (Precipitable Water) and estimate the aerosol size using the Angstrom parameter relationship. Two data versions (Versions 1 and 2) and three quality levels (Levels 1.0, 1.5, 2.0) exist for each product. While Levels 1.0 and 1.5 are provided in near real-time, the 12-month or longer delay (due to final calibration and manual inspection) ensures that the highest quality data can be found in Version 2, Level 2.0 data products. Level 2: pre- and post-field calibration applied, automatically cloud cleared and manually inspected.

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Complete Metadata

bureauCode	[ "026:00" ]
identifier	NASA-0000001
issued	2018-06-25
landingPage	http://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov/
programCode	[ "026:001" ]
spatial	Global
temporal	1993-01-01/2014-01-01
theme	[ "Earth Science" ]