GPSROZPBLA: Annual Planetary Boundary Layer Height Climatology from Satellite GPS
Updated 3mo ago
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Description
NASA's GES DISC provides an annual average climatology of planetary boundary layer (PBL) height derived from GPS radio occultation measurements by the COSMIC/FORMOSAT-3, TerraSAR-X, KOMPSAT-5, and PAZ satellite constellations. The data is generated by calculating the height of minimum vertical refractivity gradient for each occultation, a method detailed in Ao et al. (2012). This collection, last updated in March 2026, is the latest version and supersedes previous releases.
Use Cases
Validate and improve boundary layer parameterizations in climate models based on the global PBL height climatology.
Study seasonal and regional variability in atmospheric mixing depth based on the satellite-derived annual averages.
Analyze the transition from free troposphere to planetary boundary layer using the vertical gradient of refractivity (dN/dz) algorithm.
Strengths
Derived from a multi-satellite constellation (COSMIC/FORMOSAT-3, TerraSAR-X, KOMPSAT-5, PAZ), providing global spatial coverage.
Uses open-loop GPS signal tracking through the lower troposphere, which is noted as essential for high-quality PBL estimation at low latitudes.
Represents the latest version (V2) of this collection, superseding previous versions.
Limitations
Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics and data structure must be inferred after download.
Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for specific analyses.
Provenance
Source
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) via the GES DISC platform.
Collection Method
Derived from GPS radio occultation measurements using an algorithm that finds the height of minimum vertical refractivity gradient.
Time Range
Annual average climatology; specific temporal coverage of source data is not detailed.
Freshness
Last updated 2026-03-13 01:41:12.554957.
Geography
Globally distributed measurements from satellite constellations.
License is listed as 'other-license-specified'; specific terms must be checked before use.