Satellite Nitrous Oxide Zonal Averages on a Pressure Grid

Zonal means and statistics for atmospheric nitrous oxide derived from ACE-FTS and Aura MLS satellite instruments. The GES DISC organization produced this Level 3 data product, which was last updated in December 2012. Measurements cover a vertical pressure range from 147 hPa to 0.5 hPa.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical profile of nitrous oxide concentrations using the pressure grid data.
• Comparing zonal mean values across different 10-degree latitude bands.
• Assessing data variability by examining the provided standard deviation for each measurement.
• Tracking temporal changes in nitrous oxide levels from 2004 onward using the time-series dimension.
• Identifying extreme values in the atmospheric column using the minimum and maximum value fields.

Strengths

• Data merges observations from two satellite instruments: ACE-FTS and Aura MLS.
• Provides derived statistics including standard deviation and min/max values for each zonal mean.
• Covers a specific vertical pressure range from 147 hPa to 0.5 hPa.

Limitations

• The dataset has not been updated since 2012, making it temporally stale for current analysis.
• Specific sample size (row count) and geographic resolution details are unavailable.

Provenance

Source

GES_DISC, using source data from ACE-FTS (v2.2) and Aura MLS (v2.2) satellite instruments.

Collection Method

Zonal means and statistics calculated from original Level 2 satellite instrument data.

Time Range

2004 onward.

Freshness

Last updated 2012-12-31.

Geography

Global zonal (latitude band) coverage.