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Full catalog/ML3MBCLO
ML3MBCLO·v005·dataset

Chlorine monoxide, an ozone-destroying gas, monthly (Aura)

MLS/Aura Level 3 Monthly Binned Chlorine Monoxide (ClO) Mixing Ratio on Assorted Grids V005 (ML3MBCLO) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 3 active
In plain English

What it measures. Monthly amounts of chlorine monoxide in the atmosphere, sorted by latitude and altitude. This gas is a direct player in the chemical reactions that destroy ozone.

How it's made. Derived mainly from 640 GHz microwave signals recorded by the Microwave Limb Sounder on NASA's Aura satellite, then averaged into monthly bins.

How & where you'd use it. Central to monitoring ozone-layer chemistry, especially the processes behind the seasonal ozone hole over the poles.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › HALOCARBONS AND HALOGENS › CHLORINE MONOXIDE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2004-08-02 → ongoing
  • Measured byAura (MLS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • 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

ML3MBCLO is the EOS Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) monthly binned on various vertical grids product for chlorine monoxide (ClO) derived from radiances measured primarily by the 640 GHz radiometer. The data version is 5.1. Data coverage is from August 2005 to current. Spatial coverage is near-global (-82 to +82 degrees latitude), with a spatial resolution of 4 degrees latitude by 5 degrees longitude. The recommended useful vertical range is between 147 and 1.0 hPa, and the vertical resolution varies between 3 and 4.5 km. Users of the ML3MBCLO data product should read chapter 4 and section 3.6 of the EOS MLS Level 2 Version 5 Quality Document for more information. The data files are archived in the netCDF4 format, which is also compatible with HDF5 readers and tools. Each file contains two grid objects (profile and column data), each with a set of data and geolocation fields, grid attributes, and metadata.

Get the data

ml3mbclo_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ML3MBCLO",
    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.