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Full catalog/ML3MBT
ML3MBT·v005·dataset

Air temperature by altitude, monthly (Aura)

MLS/Aura Level 3 Monthly Binned Temperature on Assorted Grids V005 (ML3MBT) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 3 active
In plain English

What it measures. Monthly maps of air temperature at different heights, reaching well up into the upper atmosphere, summarized with averages, extremes, and spread for each grid cell.

How it's made. Derived from the Microwave Limb Sounder on NASA's Aura satellite, which reads temperature from microwave signals, then binned by month onto various vertical grids.

How & where you'd use it. Useful for studying the upper atmosphere and its temperature patterns over time, including seasonal cycles and long-term change.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE › UPPER AIR TEMPERATURE

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

ML3MBT is the EOS Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) monthly binned on various vertical grids product for temperature derived from radiances measured by the 118 and 240 GHz radiometers. 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 261 to 0.001 hPa, and the vertical resolution is between 3 and 6 km. Users of the ML3MBT data product should read chapter 4 and section 3.22 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

ml3mbt_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ML3MBT",
    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.