Tag: NetCDF

WISO- SAT is a new open- access database that standardizes and harmonizes ~24 years (2002- 2024) of satellite measurements of stable hydrogen isotopes (mainly δD, the deuterium- to- hydrogen ratio) in atmospheric water vapor from eight missions.

It was developed by an international team led by Rice University researcher Mampi Sarkar (corresponding author), with Sylvia Dee (associate professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences at Rice) and collaborators from NASA/JPL, European institutions, Japan, and others.

The work is described in a paper published in Scientific Data (Nature). The Rice University news release covering it was written by media relations specialist Rachel Leeson (dated Oct. 26, 2026).

Water isotopes act as natural tracers or “fingerprint”. Their ratios reveal where water vapor originated and the processes (evaporation, condensation, transport) it experienced.

Satellites have measured these for decades, but each mission (SCIAMACHY, GOSAT, GOSAT- 2, TROPOMI, TES, AIRS, CrIS, IASI) used different instruments, formats, calibrations, grids, altitudes, and sampling strategies.

Combining datasets previously required up to a year of labor- intensive cleaning and reconciliation, and efforts were often duplicated worldwide.

WISO- SAT solves this by collecting the raw data, applying bias corrections across platforms, quantifying uncertainty, and distributing instrument-specific gridded NetCDF products at 1° × 1° and 5° × 5° resolutions (monthly δD and moisture concentration). The standardization pipeline itself is public, so new data can be added in a consistent way.

Researchers can now more readily study:

• Moisture transport, cloud formation, precipitation, and atmospheric rivers
• Decadal climate variability and seasonal- cycle changes
• El Niño and La Niña influences
• Land- atmosphere interactions (e.g., deforestation, soil moisture, evapotranspiration)
• Evaluation and improvement of isotope- enabled climate models (GCMs)

Satellites provide coverage of remote regions (oceans, poles) that ground instruments cannot easily reach and offer consistent long-term records.

The project was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation and NASA.

The public database and processing code lower barriers for the broader scientific community, students, and others studying Earth’s water cycle.

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WISO-SAT: A global database of stable hydrogen isotopes in water vapor from eight satellite missions

Overview

This is an open- access Data Descriptor paper introducing WISO- SAT, a harmonized multi- instrument database of monthly δD (deuterium excess and stable hydrogen isotope ratio, HDO/H₂O) and moisture concentration retrievals in atmospheric water vapor.

It compiles and standardizes data from eight satellite missions spanning 2002–2024:

• SCIAMACHY
• GOSAT
• GOSAT-2
• TROPOMI
• TES
• AIRS
• CrIS
• IASI

Key features

• Products: Instrument- specific gridded NetCDF files at 1° × 1° and 5° × 5° horizontal resolutions.
• Standardization innovations: Cross- platform bias correction and uncertainty quantification to enable intercomparison despite differences in time periods, altitudes, formats, and instrument characteristics.
• Open resources: Public repository with the NetCDF files and preprocessing and standardization codes. Example notebooks and scripts are included for model–satellite averaging-kernel application and regression- based bias correction (e.g., for surface δD comparisons).

Scientific motivation and applications

Stable hydrogen isotopes (especially δD) serve as tracers of the hydrological cycle and climate dynamics. Prior satellite records were fragmented, making multi- mission analysis labor- intensive. WISO- SAT fills observational gaps (especially remote regions) and supports:

• Studies of decadal climate variability and seasonal- cycle changes
• Process- level research on moisture transport, rain formation and evaporation, atmospheric rivers, etc.
• Evaluation and development of isotope-enabled general circulation models (GCMs)
• Broader atmospheric science and hydrology applications

Authors and funding

Corresponding author: Mampi Sarkar (Rice University).

Key co- authors include Sylvia Dee and Michelle Frazer (Rice University), plus collaborators from the University of Michigan, Oregon State University, SRON (Netherlands), University of Bremen, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, NASA GISS, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (California Institute of Technology), and University of Bergen.⁠

Funding includes U.S. National Science Foundation awards (CAREER 2338861, SCI- SWIM 2513024) and NASA support (including the NEWS SPICE project and JPL contract).

Access

• Article page: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-026-08218-8 (Open Access under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
• PDF download link is available on the page.
• Supplementary information PDF is also provided.
• The actual data repository (NetCDFs and code) is referenced in the paper as open-access.

This is the primary scientific publication behind the recent Rice University press coverage on the open water-isotope database.

Journal: Scientific Data (Nature)

DOI: 10.1038/s41597-026-08218-8

Published: 8 September 2026 (early access / accepted version)

Provided: Rice University

Authors: Mampi Sarkar,
Sylvia Dee,
Michelle Frazer,
Adriana Bailey,
Stephen Good,
Soumyajit Mandal,
Stefan Noël,
Matthias Schneider,
Hayoung Bong,
Kevin Bowman,
Hans Christian Steen-Larsen,
Marja Haagsma &
John Worden

Abstract

Stable isotopes of hydrogen, including deuterium (δD), provide a critical tracer for understanding Earth’s hydrological cycle and climate dynamics. Recognizing this, the last two decades have seen a number of remote sensing missions geared towards measuring the ratio of HDO/H2O in water vapor. At present, however, observational gaps persist in remote regions and across satellite platforms. Furthermore, these data span different time periods, altitudes, and are inconsistently formatted, complicating intercomparison. To address this, we describe WISO-SAT, a harmonized multi-instrument database of monthly δ D and moisture concentration retrievals from eight satellite missions (SCIAMACHY, GOSAT, GOSAT-2, TROPOMI, TES, AIRS, CrIS, IASI) distributed as instrument-specific gridded NetCDF products at 1° × 1° and 5° × 5° horizontal resolutions. Key innovations and standardization of these 8 data products are made through bias correction across platforms and by providing uncertainty quantification. The dataset spans 2002–2024, enabling studies of decadal climate variability and changes in the seasonal cycle. These standardized and publicly available water vapor isotope products address a critical gap in isotopic observations from satellites across different timelines, supports climate model evaluation and development (e.g., isotope-enabled GCMs), and process-level studies of atmospheric phenomena such as moisture transport, rain formation and evaporation, and atmospheric rivers. An open-access repository includes NetCDF files and preprocessing codes used to format each dataset. We also provide example notebooks and scripts demonstrating model-satellite averaging kernel application and regression-based bias correction for surface δ D comparison. WISO-SAT enables novel applications in atmospheric science and hydrology, and provides an open data product that can be used to validate the simulation of Earth’s water cycle in GCMs.