MERRA-2 3-Hourly Ozone Tendency Assimilations on 42 Pressure Levels

M2T3NPODT provides 3-hourly time-averaged assimilations of ozone tendencies across 42 pressure levels from NASA's MERRA-2 reanalysis. The dataset covers the period from 1980 to the present, produced by NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office using the GEOS 5.12.4 model. Data fields include total ozone analysis tendency and tendencies due to chemistry, moist processes, and dynamics.

Use Cases

• Analyze the tendency of odd oxygen mixing ratio due to chemistry across pressure levels to validate atmospheric chemistry models.
• Model the total ozone analysis tendency field to study diurnal cycles and short-term atmospheric variability.
• Investigate the tendency of ozone due to dynamics to understand transport mechanisms in the stratosphere and troposphere.
• Assess the tendency of odd oxygen due to moist processes to quantify the role of humidity and cloud processes in ozone budgets.
• Use the 3-hourly temporal resolution from 01:30 UTC to track rapid changes in ozone tendencies for event-based studies.

Strengths

• Covers a long temporal range from 1980 to present, enabling long-term trend analysis.
• Provides data on 42 distinct pressure levels for detailed vertical profiling.
• Offers a high 3-hourly temporal resolution for capturing diurnal cycles.

Limitations

• Specific row count and file size are unknown, complicating resource planning.
• Data has a latency of approximately 3 weeks after the end of a month, limiting real-time use.
• Reprocessing events create filename inconsistencies that require user attention.

Provenance

Source

NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) via the GES DISC.

Collection Method

Generated by the Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS) version 5.12.4 for the MERRA-2 reanalysis.

Time Range

1980 to present.

Freshness

Updated with a ~3 week latency after each month; covers 1980-present.

Geography

Global coverage at 0.625 x 0.5 degree resolution.