diff --git a/da/ctgridded/statevector.py b/da/ctgridded/statevector.py
index 2ae57afd8436961de6cbc7292300c8ea66be2d76..813bff826feca6492a389bb10f1630484fef92f8 100755
--- a/da/ctgridded/statevector.py
+++ b/da/ctgridded/statevector.py
@@ -77,10 +77,10 @@ class CtGriddedStateVector(StateVector):
 
             if 'pco2' in file: 
                 cov_ocn     = f.GetVariable('CORMAT')
-                cov         = 0.16 *np.dot(cov_ocn,cov_ocn)
+                cov         = cov_ocn
             else: 
                 cov         = f.GetVariable('covariance')
-                cov_sf      = 1./np.sqrt(cov.diagonal().sum())  # this scaling factor makes the total variance close to the value of a single ecoregion
+                cov_sf      = 0.5/np.sqrt(cov.diagonal().sum())  # this scaling factor makes the total variance close to the value of a single ecoregion
                 cov         = cov*cov_sf
 
             dummy   = f.close()