MERRA-2 Vertically Integrated Atmospheric Diagnostics at Diurnal Resolution

M2IUNXINT provides instantaneous, 2-dimensional monthly diurnal means of vertically integrated atmospheric diagnostics from NASA's MERRA-2 reanalysis. The collection includes fields such as kinetic energy, virtual potential temperature, and total precipitable water, with data for each hour from 00:00 to 23:00 UTC. Produced by NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO), it covers the period from 1980 to the present.

Use Cases

• Analyze diurnal cycles of total precipitable water using the 24 hourly mean fields.
• Validate climate model output for kinetic energy and virtual potential temperature against this reanalysis.
• Study long-term trends in vertically integrated atmospheric diagnostics from 1980 onward.
• Correlate hourly atmospheric state variables with surface observations or satellite retrievals.

Strengths

• Data coverage spans from 1980 to the present, providing over 40 years of continuous global atmospheric records.
• Provides 24 distinct hourly means (00:00 to 23:00 UTC) for each month, capturing diurnal variability.
• Produced by NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office using the GEOS 5.12.4 model, ensuring authoritative provenance.

Limitations

• Data has a latency of approximately 3 weeks after the end of a month, limiting near-real-time applications.
• The spatial resolution is 0.625 x 0.5 degrees, which may be too coarse for regional or local-scale studies.
• Reprocessing events can lead to filename inconsistencies, requiring careful version management.

Provenance

Source

NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) via the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC).

Collection Method

Generated via the Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS) version 5.12.4, which assimilates observational data.

Time Range

1980 to present

Freshness

Updated monthly with a ~3-week latency.

Geography

Global coverage at 0.625 x 0.5 degree resolution.