Monthly Atmospheric Analysis Fields at 42 Pressure Levels

MERRA-2 provides a global atmospheric reanalysis from 1980 to the present, with data latency of approximately three weeks. NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office produced this dataset using the Goddard Earth Observing System Model version 5.12.4. The collection includes instantaneous 3D monthly mean analyzed meteorological fields.

Use Cases

• Analyzing temperature and specific humidity trends at 42 pressure levels for climate change studies.
• Validating wind component forecasts against reanalyzed wind fields across global 0.625 x 0.5 degree grids.
• Studying ozone mixing ratio distribution and transport using monthly mean 3D fields.
• Calculating atmospheric energy budgets using geopotential height and quadratic variance/covariance parameters.

Strengths

• Global coverage with continuous data from 1980 to present.
• Includes 42 vertical pressure levels for detailed 3D atmospheric analysis.
• Produced by NASA GMAO using a state-of-the-art assimilation system (GEOS 5.12.4).

Limitations

• Data has a latency of ~3 weeks, limiting near-real-time applications.
• Reprocessing events create filename inconsistencies requiring user awareness.
• Specific row counts and file sizes are not provided in the description.

Provenance

Source

NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO).

Collection Method

Reanalysis using the Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS) version 5.12.4 with data assimilation.

Time Range

1980 to present.

Freshness

Updated monthly with ~3-week latency.

Geography

Global.