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Full catalog/ML2GPH
ML2GPH·v005·dataset

Height of pressure levels in the upper atmosphere (Aura)

MLS/Aura Level 2 Geopotential Height V005 (ML2GPH) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 2 active
In plain English

What it measures. Records the height, in the upper atmosphere, of the levels where air pressure hits certain fixed values. In plainer terms, it tells you how high up a given pressure surface sits, from the lower stratosphere all the way to the very thin air far above.

How it's made. Derived from microwave energy picked up by the Microwave Limb Sounder instrument on NASA's Aura satellite, which builds vertical profiles along its orbit roughly 15 times a day.

How & where you'd use it. A reference layer for studying the structure and behavior of the upper atmosphere; it is mainly a science input used by atmospheric researchers rather than something the general public would open directly.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ALTITUDE › GEOPOTENTIAL HEIGHT

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

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

ML2GPH is the EOS Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) standard product for geopotential height derived from radiances measured by the 118 and 240 GHz radiometers. 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). The recommended useful vertical range is between 261 and 0.001 hPa, and the vertical resolution varies between ~3.6 and 6 km. Users of the ML2GPH data product should read section 3.8 of 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 two swath objects (profile and column data), each with a set of data and geolocation fields, swath attributes, and metadata.

Get the data

ml2gph_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ML2GPH",
    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.