Monthly Atmospheric Statistics from NASA's MERRA-2 Reanalysis

MERRA-2 provides monthly aggregated statistics from a global atmospheric reanalysis covering 1980 to present. NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office produces this data using the GEOS model version 5.12.4, with a latency of approximately three weeks after each month ends.

Use Cases

• Analyze trends in daily mean and extreme (minimum/maximum) 2-meter air temperature over multi-decadal periods.
• Model relationships between precipitation metrics, like maximum precipitation rate, and other atmospheric variables.
• Study the variance of key atmospheric parameters to assess climate variability and signal-to-noise ratios.
• Validate regional climate model outputs against this global reanalysis dataset for specific geographic coordinates.

Strengths

• Global spatial coverage at 0.625 x 0.5 degree resolution.
• Continuous temporal coverage from 1980 to present, updated monthly.

Limitations

• Specific row and column counts are not publicly documented.
• Data undergoes periodic reprocessing, requiring users to check for version changes.

Provenance

Source

NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO).

Collection Method

Generated via the Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS) version 5.12.4 atmospheric data assimilation.

Time Range

1980 - Present

Freshness

Updated monthly with a ~3 week latency.

Geography

Global