Earth Data School
About
Full catalog/ML2T
ML2T·v006·dataset

Air temperature at different heights in the atmosphere (Aura)

MLS/Aura Level 2 Temperature V006 (ML2T) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 2 active
In plain English

What it measures. Air temperature at many different heights through the atmosphere, from the lower atmosphere up into the very thin air far above, measured along the satellite's path around most of the globe.

How it's made. Derived from microwave signals naturally emitted by the atmosphere, recorded by the Microwave Limb Sounder on NASA's Aura satellite, then processed into temperature profiles.

How & where you'd use it. Studying the structure of the atmosphere, tracking changes in the stratosphere, and supporting climate and atmospheric chemistry research.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE › UPPER AIR TEMPERATURE

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

ML2T is the EOS Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) standard product for temperature derived from radiances measured by the 118 and 240 GHz radiometers. The data version is 6.0. 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 recommended useful vertical range is from 261 to 0.000464 hPa, and the vertical resolution is between 3 and 6 km. Users of the ML2T data product should read section 3.23 of the EOS MLS Level 2 Version 6 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

ml2t_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ML2T",
    version="006",
    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.