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Full catalog/ML3MBSO2
ML3MBSO2·v005·dataset

Sulfur dioxide high in the atmosphere (MLS, monthly)

MLS/Aura Level 3 Monthly Binned Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) Mixing Ratio on Assorted Grids V005 (ML3MBSO2) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 3 active
In plain English

What it measures. Monthly averages of sulfur dioxide gas (SO2) high up in the atmosphere, organized by altitude and location across most of the globe. SO2 is a pollutant often linked to volcanic eruptions and industrial activity.

How it's made. Built from microwave signals picked up by the Microwave Limb Sounder instrument on NASA's Aura satellite, then averaged into monthly grids at different heights.

How & where you'd use it. Helps scientists track how sulfur dioxide moves through the upper atmosphere over time, useful for studying volcanic plumes and atmospheric chemistry.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › SULFUR COMPOUNDS › SULFUR DIOXIDE

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

ML3MBSO2 is the EOS Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) monthly binned on various vertical grids product for sulfur dioxide (SO2) derived from radiances measured by the 240 GHz radiometer. 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 215 to 10 hPa, and the vertical resolution is about 3 km. Users of the ML3MBSO2 data product should read chapter 4 and section 3.21 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

ml3mbso2_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ML3MBSO2",
    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.