The Ocean Biology DAAC produces near real-time (NRT) products using the best-available combination of ancillary data from meteorological and ozone data. As such, the inputs and the calibration used are less than optimal. Near real-time products provide a snapshot of the data during a short time period within a single orbit.

The Ocean Color Biogeochemical (OC_BGC) suite provides satellite-derived biogeochemical properties of the upper ocean, produced from calibrated, atmospherically corrected ocean-color inputs from PACE_OCI. These products characterize carbon pools and ecosystem status.

Particulate Inorganic Carbon (PIC) includes product of particulate inorganic carbon (calcite, typically from coccolithophores) from ocean-color reflectance using the Balch & Gordon algorithm. PIC is used to detect and quantify coccolithophore blooms, assess carbonate cycling and optical backscatter, and provide biogeochemical context alongside chlor_a, Kd_490, PAR, and SST.

Particulate Organic Carbon (POC) includes product of particulate organic carbon concentration from ocean-color reflectance. POC is widely used to quantify surface carbon stocks, support biogeochemical and export-flux studies, and provide ecological context alongside chlor_a, bbp, Kd_490, and SST.

Chlorophyll-a (CHL) provides global, gridded composites of surface chlorophyll-a concentration (a proxy for phytoplankton biomass). CHL supports time-series and climatologies, anomaly detection, ecosystem and fisheries applications, and teaching/training, and pairs well with AVW, PAR, Kd(490), SST, and winds for environmental context. Note that retrievals in optically complex coastal/inland waters may carry higher uncertainty—refer to the mission/algorithm documentation (e.g., OCx/OCI) for details.

CARBON provides phytoplankton carbon concentration derived from NASA ocean-color observations. Typical uses include quantifying biomass and carbon stocks, assessing ecosystem productivity and change, driving biogeochemical models, and providing biological context alongside chlorophyll, PAR, SST, and other environmental variables.

As with all ocean-color retrievals, uncertainties increase in optically complex coastal/inland waters or under high aerosol/glint; users should refer to per-mission algorithm notes and quality flags before analysis.

Geophysical variables in this suite include:

• carbon_phyto — Phytoplankton carbon biomass (mg m⁻³)
• carbon_phyto_unc — Phytoplankton carbon biomass standard uncertainty (mg m⁻³)
• chlor_a — Chlorophyll-a concentration (mg m⁻³)
• chlor_a_unc — Chlorophyll-a concentration uncertainty (mg m⁻³)
• poc — Particulate Organic Carbon (mg m⁻³)
  • l2_flags — Level-2 processing flags (bitmask; see per-variable attributes for flag_masks and flag_meanings)