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Full catalog/ML3MBN2O
ML3MBN2O·v005·dataset

Laughing gas (N₂O) levels in the air, monthly (Aura)

MLS/Aura Level 3 Monthly Binned Nitrous Oxide (N2O) Mixing Ratio on Assorted Grids V005 (ML3MBN2O) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 3 active
In plain English

What it measures. Monthly average amounts of nitrous oxide (laughing gas, a greenhouse gas) in the atmosphere at different heights, covering nearly the whole globe in coarse latitude-longitude bins.

How it's made. Derived from microwave radiation measured by the Microwave Limb Sounder on NASA's Aura satellite, then averaged into monthly grids at various vertical levels.

How & where you'd use it. Useful for tracking this greenhouse gas through the upper atmosphere and studying atmospheric chemistry and circulation.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › NITROGEN COMPOUNDS › NITROUS OXIDE

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

ML3MBN2O is the EOS Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) monthly binned on various vertical grids product for nitrous oxide (N2O) derived from radiances measured primarily by the 640 GHz radiometer (Band 12) until August 6, 2013, after this date using the 190 GHz radiometer (Band 3). The data version is 5.1. 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 from 68.1 to 0.464 hPa, and the vertical resolution is between 4 and 6 km. Users of the ML3MBN2O data product should read chapter 4 and section 3.17 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 "potential temperature", lat vs "potential temperature" zonal mean, "equivalent latitude" vs "potential temperature" zonal mean, and vortex average vs "potential temperature". Each group has a set of data (average, min, max, std dev, rms) and geolocation fields, grid attributes, and metadata.

Get the data

ml3mbn2o_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ML3MBN2O",
    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.