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Full catalog/ML2EDMPMERRA2
ML2EDMPMERRA2·v005·dataset

Weather conditions paired with the atmosphere sounder (Aura)

MLS/Aura Level 2 Derived Meteorological Products for MERRA-2 V005 (ML2EDMPMERRA2) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 2 active
In plain English

What it measures. Weather and atmospheric conditions, such as temperature and pressure at different heights, matched to the exact points where the Aura satellite's limb sounder took its measurements.

How it's made. Created by pulling MERRA-2 reanalysis values and aligning them to the locations of each MLS profile along the satellite's orbit, from near the ground up into the very high atmosphere.

How & where you'd use it. A companion dataset for researchers working with Aura MLS atmospheric measurements who need matching background weather conditions at the same spots; mostly a supporting input rather than a standalone product.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ALTITUDEATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE › UPPER AIR TEMPERATURE › VERTICAL PROFILES › DRY ADIABATIC LAPSE RATEATMOSPHERE › ALTITUDE › GEOPOTENTIAL HEIGHTATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC WINDS › WIND DYNAMICS › VORTICITY › POTENTIAL VORTICITYATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC WINDS › UPPER LEVEL WINDS › U/V WIND COMPONENTSATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC WINDS › WIND DYNAMICS › STREAMFUNCTIONSATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE › ATMOSPHERIC STABILITYATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE › UPPER AIR TEMPERATURE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2004-08-02 → ongoing
  • Measured byMERRA-2 (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

ML2EDMPMERRA2 is the EOS Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) product with derived meteorological variables from MERRA-2 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 ML2EDMPMERRA2 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

ml2edmpmerra2_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ML2EDMPMERRA2",
    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.