Deep Space Climate Observatory

Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) (formerly known as Triana) was originally conceived in the late 1990s as a NASA Earth science mission that would provide a near continuous view of Earth and measure Earth’s complete albedo. The mission was canceled and the satellite was put into storage in 2001. NOAA and the USAF had DSCOVR removed from storage and tested in 2008, and the same year the Committee on Space Environmental Sensor Mitigation Options (CSESMO) determined that DSCOVR was the optimal solution for meeting NOAA and USAF space weather requirements as well as NASA’s Earth science needs.

From its L1 position, DSCOVR will typically be able to provide 15 to 60 minute warning time before the surge of particles and magnetic field, known as a coronal mass ejection (or CME), associated with a geomagnetic storm reaches Earth. DSCOVR data will also be used to improve predictions of geomagnetic storm impact locations. Our national security and economic well-being, which depend on advanced technologies, are at risk without these advanced warnings. Some NASA Earth science sensors also rely on space weather data to protect sensitive components.

The ASDC hosts the data from the two DSCOVR Earth science sensors.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology Advanced Radiometer (NISTAR) is a cavity radiometer designed to measure the absolute spectral irradiance (power of electromagnetic radiation) reflected and emitted from the entire sunlit face of the Earth. This measurement will improve our understanding of the effects of changes to Earth's reflected and emitted radiation caused by human activities and natural phenomena. This information can be used for climate science applications.

The Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) is an imager that provides global spectral images of the entire sunlit face of Earth and insight into Earth's energy balance. EPIC's observations will provide a unique angular perspective, and will be used in science applications to measure ozone amounts, aerosol amounts, cloud height and phase, vegetation properties, hotspot land properties and UV radiation estimates at Earth's surface.

The production and calibration of DSCOVR EPIC and NISTAR data is on-going.  EPIC RGB images are publicly available through http://epic.gsfc.nasa.gov.

DSCOVR Project Page

Disciplines:   Aerosols Clouds Radiation Budget
Collection Disciplines Spatial Temporal
DSCOVR_EPIC_L4_TrO3_01
DSCOVR EPIC Level 4 Tropospheric Ozone
Clouds,  Radiation Budget Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2015-06-17 - Present
Collection Disciplines Spatial Temporal
DSCOVR_EPIC_L3_PAR_01
DSCOVR EPIC Level 3 PAR
Radiation Budget Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2015-06-13 - Present
DSCOVR_EPIC_L3_PAR-IMAGE_01
DSCOVR EPIC Level 3 PAR Image
Radiation Budget Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2015-06-13 - Present
Collection Disciplines Spatial Temporal
DSCOVR_EPIC_L2_AER_03
DSCOVR EPIC Level 2 UV Aerosol Version 3
Aerosols,  Clouds Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2015-06-16 - Present
DSCOVR_EPIC_L2_AERF_01
DSCOVR EPIC Level 2 EPICAERUV-Fast
Aerosols,  Clouds Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2020-09-01 - Present
DSCOVR_EPIC_L2_AOCH_01
DSCOVR EPIC Aerosol Optical Centroid Height
Aerosols,  Radiation Budget Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2015-06-13 - Present
DSCOVR_EPIC_L2_CLOUD_03
DSCOVR EPIC Level 2 Cloud Version 03
Clouds,  Radiation Budget,  Tropospheric Composition Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2015-06-13 - Present
DSCOVR_EPIC_L2_CLOUDFRACTION_01
DSCOVR EPIC Cloud Fraction Image
Clouds,  Radiation Budget,  Tropospheric Composition Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2015-06-13 - Present
DSCOVR_EPIC_L2_CLOUDHEIGHT_01
EPIC Cloud Height
Clouds Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2015-06-15 - Present
DSCOVR_EPIC_L2_COMPOSITE_01
EPIC-view satellite composites for DSCOVR, Version 1
Clouds,  Radiation Budget Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2015-06-12 - 2017-12-31
DSCOVR_EPIC_L2_COMPOSITE_02
GEO/LEO based cloud property composites for DSCOVR EPIC view, Version 2
Clouds,  Radiation Budget Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2015-06-13 - 2021-07-31
DSCOVR_EPIC_L2_GLINT_01
DSCOVR EPIC Level 2 GLINT
Clouds Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2015-06-13 - Present
DSCOVR_EPIC_L2_MAIAC_02
DSCOVR EPIC L2 Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) Version 02
Aerosols,  Clouds,  Radiation Budget Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2015-06-13 - Present
DSCOVR_EPIC_L2_MAIAC_03
DSCOVR EPIC Level 3 MAIAC
Aerosols,  Clouds,  Radiation Budget Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2015-06-13 - Present
DSCOVR_EPIC_L2_O3SO2AI_02
DSCOVR EPIC L2 Ozone (O3), Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) Aerosol Index (AI) with Epic L1B V03 Input, Version 2
Clouds,  Radiation Budget Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2015-06-13 - Present
DSCOVR_EPIC_L2_O3SO2AI_03
DSCOVR EPIC Level 2 O3SO2AI
Aerosols,  Clouds,  Radiation Budget Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2015-06-13 - Present
DSCOVR_EPIC_L2_SO2_02
DSCOVR EPIC Level 2 Sulfur dioxide (SO2) Product with EPIC Version 3 Input Version 2
Aerosols,  Clouds,  Radiation Budget Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2016-01-02 - Present
DSCOVR_EPIC_L2_TO3_03
DSCOVR EPIC Level 2 Total Ozone, Version 3
Clouds,  Radiation Budget Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2015-06-16 - Present
DSCOVR_EPIC_L2_VESDR_02
DSCOVR EPIC Level 2 Vegetation Earth System Data Record (VESDR), Version 2
Aerosols,  Clouds,  Radiation Budget Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2015-06-13 - Present
DSCOVR_NISTAR_L2_FLX_01
Daytime Earth radiation budget determined from NISTAR and EPIC composites Version 1
Radiation Budget Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2017-01-01 - 2017-12-31
Collection Disciplines Spatial Temporal
DSCOVR_EPIC_L1B_3
DSCOVR EPIC Level 1B Version 3
Radiation Budget Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2015-06-13 - Present
DSCOVR_NISTAR_L1B_3
Deep Space Climate Observatory National Institute of Standards and Technology Advanced Radiometer Level 1B Radiance, Version 3
Radiation Budget Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2017-01-31 - Present
DSCOVR_NISTAR_L1B_FILTERED_3
Deep Space Climate Observatory National Institute of Standards and Technology Advanced Radiometer Level 1B Radiance Filtered, Version 3
Radiation Budget Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2017-02-01 - Present
Collection Disciplines Spatial Temporal
DSCOVR_EPIC_L1A_3
DSCOVR EPIC Level 1A Version 3
Radiation Budget Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2015-06-13 - Present
DSCOVR_NISTAR_L1A_3
Deep Space Climate Observatory National Institute of Standards and Technology Advanced Radiometer Level 1A Radiance, Version 3
Radiation Budget Spatial Coverage:
(S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2017-01-31 - Present

DSCOVR Mission Publications

Yin, Bangsheng; Min, Qilong; Morgan, Emily; Yang, Yuekui; Marshak, Alexander; Davis, Anthony B. (2022). Cloud-top pressure retrieval with DSCOVR EPIC oxygen A- and B-band observations.


Zhou, Yaping; Yang, Yuekui; Gao, Meng; Zhai, Peng-Wang (2021). Cloud detection over snow and ice with oxygen A- and B-band observations from the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC).


Marshak, Alexander; Delgado-Bonal, Alfonso; Knyazikhin, Yuri (2021). Effect of Scattering Angle on Earth Reflectance.


Herman, Jay; Wen, Guoyong; Marshak, Alexander; Blank, Karin; Huang, Liang; Cede, Alexander; Abuhassan, Nader; Kowalewski, Matthew (2020). Reduction in 317–780 nm radiance reflected from the sunlit Earth during the eclipse of 21 August 2017.


Gu, Lixiang; Zeng, Zhao-Cheng; Fan, Siteng; Natraj, Vijay; Jiang, Jonathan H.; Crisp, David; Yung, Yuk L.; Hu, Yongyun (2020). Earth as a Proxy Exoplanet: Simulating DSCOVR/EPIC Observations Using the Earth Spectrum Simulator.


Yang, Yuekui; Meyer, Kerry; Wind, Galina; Zhou, Yaping; Marshak, Alexander; Platnick, Steven; Min, Qilong; Davis, Anthony B.; Joiner, Joanna; Vasilkov, Alexander; Duda, David; Su, Wenying (2020). Cloud products from the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC): algorithms and initial evaluation.


Ahn, Changwoo; Torres, Omar; Jethva, Hiren; Tiruchirapalli, Ramaswamy; Huang, Liang‐Kang (2020). Evaluation of Aerosol Properties Observed by DSCOVR/EPIC Instrument From the Earth‐Sun Lagrange 1 Orbit.


Gu, Lixiang; Fan, Siteng; Li, Jiazheng; Bartlett, Stuart J.; Natraj, Vijay; Jiang, Jonathan H.; Crisp, David; Hu, Yongyun; Tinetti, Giovanna; Yung, Yuk L. (2018). Earth as a Proxy Exoplanet: Deconstructing and Reconstructing Spectrophotometric Light Curves.


Lyapustin, A.; Wang, Y.; Go, S.; Choi, M.; Korkin, S.; Huang, D.; Knyazikhin, Y.; Blank, K.; Marshak, A. (2017). Atmospheric Correction of DSCOVR EPIC: Version 2 MAIAC Algorithm.


Yang, Kai; Liu, Xiong (2017). Ozone profile climatology for remote sensing retrieval algorithms.


Huang, Xinzhou; Yang, Kai (2016). Algorithm theoretical basis for ozone and sulfur dioxide retrievals from DSCOVR EPIC.