MERRA-2: Monthly Mean Atmospheric Diagnostics, 1980-Present

NASA's MERRA-2 global atmospheric reanalysis provides monthly mean data from 1980 onward. The collection includes diagnostics for temperature, wind, pressure, and water vapor at popular vertical levels. It is produced by NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office using the GEOS model.

Use Cases

• Analyzing long-term climate trends based on monthly mean air temperature and pressure data.
• Studying atmospheric circulation patterns based on wind component data at multiple vertical levels.
• Modeling hydrological cycles based on total precipitable water vapor and ice/liquid water data.
• Investigating surface and upper atmosphere interactions based on diagnostics from 2-meter to 250 hPa levels.

Strengths

• Data covers a continuous period from 1980 to the present.
• Collection includes variance data for certain parameters.
• Produced by NASA GMAO using the GEOS version 5.12.4 model.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data has a latency of approximately three weeks after the end of each month.

Provenance

Source

NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO)

Collection Method

Assimilation using the Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS) version 5.12.4.

Time Range

1980-present

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 00:28:43.767926; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global