Monthly Land Surface Forcings from NASA MERRA-2 Reanalysis

MERRA-2 provides global atmospheric reanalysis data from 1980 to the present, with a latency of approximately three weeks. This collection contains monthly mean, time-averaged land surface forcing parameters, including bias-corrected precipitation and surface radiation. The data is produced by NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office using the GEOS model version 5.12.4.

Use Cases

• Validate hydrological model precipitation inputs using the bias-corrected precipitation field.
• Analyze surface energy budget trends by examining the shortwave and longwave radiation at surface parameters over time.
• Study climate variability by assessing the variance fields provided for certain parameters within the collection.
• Force land surface models with consistent historical meteorological data using the suite of land surface forcing parameters.

Strengths

• Data coverage spans from 1980 to the present, providing over 40 years of continuous global climate records.
• Spatial resolution is 0.625 degrees longitude by 0.5 degrees latitude, offering detailed global coverage.
• Produced by NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office, an authoritative source for atmospheric reanalysis.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, file sizes, and column details are not provided in the available metadata.
• Data is reprocessed, and filename changes can create version management challenges for users.
• The ~3-week latency means data is not real-time, limiting use for immediate monitoring applications.

Provenance

Source

NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) via the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC).

Collection Method

Generated by the Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS) version 5.12.4, which assimilates observational data into a global atmospheric model.

Time Range

1980 to present

Freshness

Updated monthly with a latency of approximately three weeks after the month's end.

Geography

Global coverage