MERRA-2 M2TMNXAER: Monthly Aerosol Diagnostics from NASA Reanalysis

NASA's MERRA-2 reanalysis provides global monthly mean aerosol diagnostics from 1980 to the present. The dataset includes assimilated parameters such as column mass density of black carbon, dust, sea salt, sulfate, and organic carbon, as well as aerosol optical thickness at 550 nm. It is produced by NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office using the GEOS model version 5.12.4.

Use Cases

• Modeling global air quality trends based on monthly mean aerosol component concentrations
• Analyzing long-term climate impacts based on assimilated aerosol optical thickness data
• Studying particulate matter (PM) distributions derived from aerosol component mass densities

Strengths

• Data covers a long temporal range from 1980 to present
• Includes specific aerosol components like black carbon, dust, sea salt, sulfate, and organic carbon
• Produced by NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office using the GEOS model

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Assimilated from satellite and observational data using the Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS)

Time Range

1980-present

Freshness

Updated monthly with a latency of ~3 weeks after the end of a month

Geography

Global