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Full catalog/ML3MBGPH
ML3MBGPH·v005·dataset

Height of pressure levels in the atmosphere, monthly (Aura)

MLS/Aura Level 3 Monthly Binned Geopotential Height (GPH) on Assorted Grids V005 (ML3MBGPH) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 3 active
In plain English

What it measures. Monthly values for geopotential height, essentially how high a given air-pressure level sits in the atmosphere, sorted by latitude and altitude. It maps the vertical structure of the atmosphere.

How it's made. Derived from microwave signals measured by the Microwave Limb Sounder on NASA's Aura satellite, then averaged into monthly bins across a range of grids.

How & where you'd use it. Used by atmospheric scientists to study large-scale circulation and the structure of the upper atmosphere.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ALTITUDE › GEOPOTENTIAL HEIGHT

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

ML3MBGPH is the EOS Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) monthly binned on various vertical grids product for geopotential height (GPH) derived from radiances measured by the 118 and 240 GHz radiometers. The data version is 5.1. Data coverage is from August 2005 to current. Spatial coverage is near-global (-82 to +82 degrees latitude) at a spatial resolution of 4 degrees latitude by 5 degrees longitude. 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 ML3MBGPH data product should read chapter 4 and section 3.8 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 six group objects: lat-lon map vs pressure, lat vs pressure zonal mean, lat-lon map vs theta, lat vs theta zonal mean, equivalent lat vs theta zonal mean, and vortex average vs theta. Each group has a set of data (average, min, max, std dev, rms) and geolocation fields, grid attributes, and metadata.

Get the data

ml3mbgph_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ML3MBGPH",
    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.