HIRDLS/Aura Level 3 Temperature Zonal Fourier Coefficients

A ~3-year mission dataset from the HIRDLS instrument on the Aura satellite, processed by NASA. It contains temperature data expressed as zonal Fourier coefficients across 121 pressure levels, from 1000 to 0.0042 hPa, with about 1 km vertical resolution. The coefficients allow for the computation of temperature values at any longitude.

Use Cases

• Modeling global atmospheric temperature fields based on zonal Fourier coefficients.
• Analyzing longitudinal temperature variations using the combined ascending and descending orbit data.
• Studying vertical temperature profiles across 121 pressure levels from 1000 to 0.0042 hPa.
• Comparing daytime (ascending) and nighttime (descending) temperature patterns from satellite orbits.

Strengths

• Data covers the entire ~3-year mission of the HIRDLS instrument.
• Provides high vertical resolution with 121 pressure levels, corresponding to about 1 km.
• Coefficients allow reconstruction of temperature values at any longitude.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data format is HDF-EOS5, which may require specialized tools for access.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Coefficients computed from HIRDLS Level 2 profiles using a Kalman filter approach with forward and backward passes.

Time Range

The entire mission (~3 years).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 01:28:57.699948; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage from -64 to 80 degrees latitude.