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Full catalog/msutls
msutls·v6·dataset

How lower-stratosphere temperature drifts over time (MSU)

AMSU/MSU Lowstratosphere Day/Month Temperature Anomalies and Annual Cycle
atmosphere NASA GHRC_DAAC Level 3 ASCIInetCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Long-running records of how the temperature of the lower stratosphere (the air high above the weather layer) has drifted from its normal levels over time, going back to 1978.

How it's made. Derived from microwave sounding instruments (MSU and AMSU-A) flown on a long series of NOAA weather satellites plus Aqua, stitched together into a consistent temperature record.

How & where you'd use it. A key dataset for climate research, used to study long-term temperature trends in the upper atmosphere across decades.

What's measured

Atmosphere › Atmospheric Temperature › Surface Temperature › Air Temperature

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1978-01-01 → ongoing
  • Measured byNOAA-9 (MSU) · NOAA-19 (AMSU-A) · NOAA-8 (MSU) · NOAA-7 (MSU) · NOAA-15 (AMSU-A) · NOAA-14 (MSU) · NOAA-6 (MSU) · TIROS-N (MSU) · Aqua (AMSU-A) · NOAA-18 (AMSU-A) · NOAA-12 (MSU) · NOAA-11 (MSU) · NOAA-10 (MSU)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsASCII, netCDF-4
  • 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

The AMSU/MSU Lowstratosphere Day/Month Temperature Anomalies and Annual Cycle V6 dataset consists of temperature anomalies and annual cycle temperatures derived from the Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) and the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AMSU-A) radiance data since January 1978. All products are derived for the lower stratosphere. The dataset begins on January 1, 1978 and is still currently ongoing. The data are available in netCDF-4 and ASCII formats.

Get the data

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="msutls",
    version="6",
    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 GHRC_DAAC
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.