MERRA-2 Global Atmospheric Moisture Tendencies at 42 Pressure Levels

M2T3NPQDT provides 3-hourly time-averaged assimilations of moist tendencies across 42 pressure levels, including tendencies for ice water dynamics and specific humidity. The dataset is produced by NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office using the GEOS model version 5.12.4. It covers the period from 1980 to the present, with data available at three-hour intervals starting from 01:30 UTC.

Use Cases

• Validate model physics by comparing simulated specific humidity tendency due to moist processes against the assimilated tendency fields.
• Analyze vertical profiles of total ice water tendency due to moist processes across 42 pressure levels to study cloud formation.
• Investigate diurnal cycles in atmospheric dynamics using the 3-hourly tendency of liquid water due to dynamics.
• Assimilate the total specific humidity analysis tendency field into higher-resolution regional weather models for initialization.

Strengths

• Provides data at a high temporal resolution of 3 hours, capturing diurnal cycles.
• Covers a long temporal range from 1980 to present, enabling long-term climate studies.
• Includes vertically resolved data across 42 standard pressure levels for detailed atmospheric profiling.

Limitations

• Spatial resolution is approximately 0.625 by 0.5 degrees, which is coarse for regional-scale phenomena.
• Data has a latency of approximately 3 weeks after the end of a month, limiting near-real-time applications.
• Reprocessing events have occurred, creating filename inconsistencies that require user attention.

Provenance

Source

NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO).

Collection Method

Produced via the Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS) version 5.12.4 atmospheric reanalysis and data assimilation system.

Time Range

1980 to present.

Freshness

Updated monthly with a latency of ~3 weeks.

Geography

Global coverage.