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Full catalog/ML2T
ML2T·v005·dataset

Air temperature high in the atmosphere (Aura MLS)

MLS/Aura Level 2 Temperature V005 (ML2T) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 2 active
In plain English

What it measures. Air temperature high up in the atmosphere, measured as vertical profiles from near the surface up into the very thin upper layers, covering most of the globe.

How it's made. Derived from microwave radiation that Aura's Microwave Limb Sounder detects at the edge of the atmosphere, then converted into temperature at many altitudes.

How & where you'd use it. Used to study the structure and behavior of the upper atmosphere, including processes important to weather and climate; the quality document advises which altitude range is reliable.

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 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 recommended useful vertical range is from 261 to 0.001 hPa, and the vertical resolution is between 3 and 6 km. Users of the ML2T data product should read section 3.22 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

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

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