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Full catalog/HMA2_MATCHA
HMA2_MATCHA·v1·dataset

Modeled dust and haze over High Mountain Asia (12 km)

High Mountain Asia 12 km Modeled Estimates of Aerosol Transport, Chemistry, and Deposition Reanalysis, 2003-2019 V001
atmosphere NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 4 netCDF-4 classic
In plain English

What it measures. A reconstructed history of dust, soot, and other airborne particles over the High Mountain Asia region, including where they came from, how they heated the air, and where they fell out.

How it's made. Produced by a regional climate-chemistry computer model, kept honest by feeding in real satellite observations of haze and carbon monoxide from the MODIS and MOPITT instruments on the Terra and Aqua satellites.

How & where you'd use it. Helps assess how pollution and dust affect snow and glaciers in the Himalaya and surrounding mountains, which matters for water supplies fed by that ice.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL PARTICLE PROPERTIES › AEROSOL CONCENTRATIONATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › BLACK CARBONATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › DEPOSITIONATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › LONGWAVE RADIATIONATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › SHORTWAVE RADIATION

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2003-01-01 → 2019-08-31
  • Measured byAqua (MODIS) · MODELS (NOT APPLICABLE) · Terra (MODIS, MOPITT)
  • Processing levelLevel 4
  • Spatial extent44.647, 4.873, 138.953, 57.767
  • FormatsnetCDF-4 classic
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Map air pollutants — NO₂, aerosols, ozone
  • Track greenhouse gases and Earth's energy budget
  • Feed weather and air-quality analysis
Official description

This data set contains a 12 km resolution, simulated reanalysis of aerosol transport, chemistry, and deposition over the High Mountain Asia (HMA) region for 1 January 2003 through 31 August 2019. Two-dimensional surface data are provided at one hour intervals. Three-dimensional atmospheric data are provided at three-hour intervals for 35 sigma levels extending from the surface to 50 hPa. Also known as the Model for Atmospheric Transport and Chemistry in Asia (MATCHA), the data comprise a wide range of variables intended to help assess the impacts of aerosols on the cryosphere in the HMA region, including: concentrations of black/brown carbon and other light absorbing particles (LAPs), broken out by source region; longwave/shortwave heating rates due to LAPs; wet/dry deposition of LAPs; precipitation and hydrological data; and meteorological state variables. The simulation was generated using a fully coupled, regional chemistry-climate model (WRF-Chem-CLM-SNICAR), constrained by aerosol optical depth (AOD) and carbon monoxide (CO) satellite observations acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT) instruments, respectively.

Get the data

hma2_matcha_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="HMA2_MATCHA",
    version="1",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from NSIDC_CPRD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.