MERRA-2: Monthly Vertically Integrated Atmospheric Diagnostics

NASA's MERRA-2 global atmospheric reanalysis provides vertically integrated diagnostics, including kinetic energy and precipitable water. The dataset covers the period from 1980 to the present with a latency of approximately three weeks after each month. It is produced by NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office using the GEOS version 5.12.4 model.

Use Cases

• Analyze global atmospheric energy budgets based on vertically integrated kinetic energy diagnostics.
• Model total precipitable water content for climate studies based on integrated water vapor, liquid, and ice variables.
• Study atmospheric variability based on variance metrics included in the dataset.

Strengths

• Covers a long temporal range from 1980 to the present.
• Produced by NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO), an authoritative source.
• Includes vertically integrated diagnostics for key atmospheric variables.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect temporal bias inherent to the satellite-era reanalysis methodology.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Assimilated from satellite and observational data using the Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS).

Time Range

1980-present

Freshness

Updated monthly with a latency of ~3 weeks.

Geography

Global