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Full catalog/SNDRAQIL2PLEVCPS
SNDRAQIL2PLEVCPS·v2.1·dataset

Temperature and gases at set air pressures (Aqua AIRS)

Sounder SIPS: AQUA AIRS IR-only Level 2: Atmospheric state at Standard Pressure Levels derived from CLIMCAPS V2.1 (SNDRAQIL2PLEVCPS) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 2 active
In plain English

What it measures. Temperature, moisture, and trace gases (like ozone, carbon monoxide, and methane) reported at standard air-pressure levels, along with surface values, tropopause properties, and humidity, plus quality flags.

How it's made. Derived from the AIRS infrared instrument on the Aqua satellite using the CLIMCAPS algorithm, which uses the MERRA-2 reanalysis as a starting guess (which adds a few weeks of delay).

How & where you'd use it. Gives a ready-to-use vertical picture of the atmosphere's state for weather and climate research, organized at familiar pressure levels rather than raw sensor coordinates.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › AIR QUALITY › TROPOSPHERIC OZONEATMOSPHERE › ALTITUDE › TROPOPAUSEATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRYATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATUREATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE › SURFACE TEMPERATUREATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE › SURFACE TEMPERATURE › AIR TEMPERATUREATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE › SURFACE TEMPERATURE › SKIN TEMPERATUREATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE › UPPER AIR TEMPERATUREATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE › UPPER AIR TEMPERATURE › VERTICAL PROFILESATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPORATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR › WATER VAPOR INDICATORS › LAYERED PRECIPITABLE WATERATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR › WATER VAPOR INDICATORS › TOTAL PRECIPITABLE WATERATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2002-08-31 → ongoing
  • Measured byAqua (AIRS)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • 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 CLIMCAPS (Community Long-term Infrared Microwave Coupled Product System) algorithm is used to analyze data from the AIRS (Atmospheric Infrared Sounder) instrument aboard the Earth Observing System (EOS) polar-orbiting platform, EOS Aqua. This file contains the fixed Pressure Level product (PLEV) variables derived from the CLIMCAPS algorithm using data. They include including gas mixing ratio profiles, column totals, surface values, tropopause properties, and relative humidity, together with per-field quality flagging. The profiles are specified at the surface and layer boundaries and are estimated from layer amounts using the L2 algorithm An AIRS granule has been set as 6 minutes of data, 30 footprints cross track by 45 lines along track. There are 240 granules per day, with an orbit repeat cycle of approximately 16 day. The CLIMCAPS algorithm uses data from the second Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA-2) as a first-guess for the atmospheric state. Because MERRA-2 products typically have a latency from 3 to 7 weeks, so too do the CLIMCAPS products.

Get the data

sndraqil2plevcps_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="SNDRAQIL2PLEVCPS",
    version="2.1",
    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.