MERRA-2: Monthly Mean Aerosol Diagnostics from NASA Atmospheric Reanalysis

MERRA-2 is a monthly mean, time-averaged 2-dimensional data collection of assimilated aerosol diagnostics produced by NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office. The dataset covers the period from 1980 to the present, with a latency of approximately three weeks after the end of each month. It includes parameters such as dry and wet deposition of aerosol components, dust emission and sedimentation, and organic carbon convective scavenging.

Use Cases

• Modeling global aerosol transport and deposition based on assimilated aerosol diagnostics.
• Analyzing dust emission and sedimentation patterns for each sized bin.
• Studying organic carbon convective scavenging processes in the atmosphere.
• Investigating variance of aerosol parameters for climate research.

Strengths

• Covers a long temporal range from 1980 to present.
• Produced by NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) using the GEOS model.
• Includes specific aerosol diagnostics like dry/wet deposition and dust emission.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect temporal bias inherent to the reanalysis model.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Assimilated atmospheric reanalysis using the Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS) version 5.12.4.

Time Range

1980-present

Freshness

Updated as of 2026-03-13; data has a latency of ~3 weeks after the end of a month.

Geography

Global