Upper-atmosphere weather products (Aura MLS)
What it measures. Weather-related variables for the upper atmosphere, such as conditions calculated at the exact spots where the Aura satellite took its measurements, from near the surface up to very high altitudes.
How it's made. Built by taking variables from NASA's GEOS weather model and matching them to the measurement locations of the Microwave Limb Sounder on the Aura satellite.
How & where you'd use it. Provides the atmospheric context that helps researchers interpret Aura's chemistry measurements and study upper-atmosphere weather and dynamics.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2004-08-02 → ongoing
- Measured byGEOS-5 (NOT APPLICABLE)
- Processing levelLevel 2
- Spatial extent-180, -82, 180, 82
- StatusACTIVE
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
ML2EDMPGEOS5294 is the EOS Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) product with derived meteorological variables from GEOS-IT 5.29.4 at the MLS profile locations. The data version is 5.0. 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). The vertical range is from 1000 to 0.01 hPa, and the vertical resolution is between 3 and 6 km. Users of the ML2EDMPGEOS5294 data product should read the EOS MLS Level 2 Version 5 Quality Document for more information. The data are stored in the version 5 EOS Hierarchical Data Format (HDF-EOS5), which is based on the version 5 Hierarchical Data Format, or HDF-5. Each file contains several swath objects for a meteorological variable, each with a set of data and geolocation fields, swath attributes, and metadata.
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="ML2EDMPGEOS5294",
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. Official links
- Access the data via HTTP. GET DATA
- Access the data via the OPeNDAP protocol. USE SERVICE API
- Use the Earthdata Search to find and retrieve data sets across multiple data centers. GET DATA
- Data Quality and Description Document VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- List of publications. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Users are encouraged to register with the MLS science team to obtain updates and information about this data product. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- EOS MLS Retrieval Process Algorithm Theoretical Basis VIEW RELATED INFORMATION