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Full catalog/ML2DGM
ML2DGM·v005·dataset

Technical diagnostic grids from the Aura microwave limb sounder

MLS/Aura Level 2 Diagnostics, Miscellaneous Grid V005 (ML2DGM) at GES DISC
land NASA GES_DISC Level 2 active
In plain English

What it measures. Behind-the-scenes diagnostic numbers from the Aura satellite's atmosphere instrument, such as how well the measurements fit expected patterns, how many readings were used, and where clouds affected the signal. These are quality-control details, not direct measurements of the atmosphere.

How it's made. Generated by the Microwave Limb Sounder on NASA's Aura satellite as a companion file to its main atmospheric products, covering data from 2004 onward.

How & where you'd use it. Mainly for the science team and advanced users checking the reliability of Aura's atmospheric measurements rather than for direct study.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › MICROWAVE › MICROWAVE RADIANCE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2004-08-02 → ongoing
  • Measured byAura (MLS)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -82, 180, 82
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

ML2DGM is the EOS Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) product containing the minor frame diagnostic quantities on a miscellaneous grid. These include items such as tangent pressure, chi-square describing various fits to the measured radiances, number of radiances used in various retrieval phases, etc. This product contains a second auxiliary file which includes cloud-induced radiances inferred for selected spectral channels. The data version is 5.0. Data coverage is from August 8, 2004 to current. Spatial coverage is near-global (-82 degrees to +82 degrees latitude), with each profile spaced 1.5 degrees or ~165 km along the orbit track (roughly 15 orbits per day). Vertical resolution varies between species and typically ranges from 3 - 6 km. Users of the ML2DGM data product should read the EOS MLS Level 2 Version 5 Quality Document for more information. The data are stored in the version 5 Hierarchical Data Format, or HDF5. Each file contains sets of HDF5 dataset objects (n-dimensional arrays) for each diagnostics measurement. The dataset objects represent data and geolocation fields; included in the file are file attributes and metadata. There are two files per day (MLS-Aura_L2AUX-DGM* and MLS-Aura_L2AUX-Cloud*).

Get the data

ml2dgm_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ML2DGM",
    version="005",
    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 GES_DISC
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.