Aqua MODIS Level-3 Global Mapped Particulate Inorganic Carbon (PIC) - Near Real-time (NRT) Data, version 2022.0

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 Particulate Inorganic Carbon (PIC) data suite 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. 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:
- pic — Particulate Inorganic Carbon (Calcite concentration, Balch and Gordon) (mol m⁻³)

海洋生物学分布式主动存档中心（Ocean Biology DAAC）采用当前最优的气象与臭氧辅助数据集组合，生成近实时（NRT）产品。正因如此，其所用输入数据与校准流程并非最优配置。近实时产品可提供单轨道运行周期内的短时数据快照。

颗粒无机碳（Particulate Inorganic Carbon, PIC）数据集套件包含基于Balch与Gordon算法、由海洋颜色反射率反演得到的颗粒无机碳（通常为颗石藻来源的方解石）产品。PIC可用于检测并量化颗石藻水华、评估碳酸盐循环与光学后向散射特性，还可与叶绿素a（chlor_a）、490nm漫衰减系数（Kd_490）、光合有效辐射（Photosynthetically Active Radiation, PAR）以及海表温度（Sea Surface Temperature, SST）一同提供生物地球化学背景信息。与所有海洋颜色反演（ocean-color retrievals）产品一致，在光学特性复杂的近岸/内陆水域，或是高气溶胶浓度/太阳耀斑条件下，反演结果的不确定性会升高；用户在开展分析前，应参考对应任务的算法说明文档与质量标记。

该套件包含的地球物理变量如下：
- pic：颗粒无机碳（方解石浓度，Balch与Gordon算法），单位为mol·m⁻³