MERRA-2 M2I6NPANA: Analyzed Meteorological Fields at 42 Pressure Levels

M2I6NPANA is a 3-dimensional, 6-hourly instantaneous data collection from NASA's Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications version 2 (MERRA-2). The dataset contains analyzed meteorological fields at 42 pressure levels, including temperature, wind components, specific humidity, ozone mixing ratio, and geopotential height. NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) produced the data using the Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS) version 5.12.4, covering the period from 1980 to the present.

Use Cases

• Modeling atmospheric circulation based on wind component fields.
• Analyzing temperature trends across vertical pressure levels.
• Studying ozone distribution and atmospheric chemistry.
• Calculating geopotential height for weather forecasting applications.
• Investigating specific humidity patterns for climate research.

Strengths

• Data is produced by NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO).
• Collection covers a long temporal range from 1980 to the present.
• Fields are provided at 42 distinct pressure levels.
• Data is available at a 6-hourly instantaneous frequency.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data has a latency of approximately 3 weeks after the end of a month.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Produced by NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) using the Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS) version 5.12.4.

Time Range

1980-present

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 00:31:04.042720; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global