MERRA-2: Monthly Diurnal Surface Flux Diagnostics at 0.625 x 0.5 Degree

MERRA-2 provides assimilated surface flux diagnostics like total precipitation, surface air temperature, and evaporation from turbulence. The dataset covers the period from 1980 to the present with a latency of approximately three weeks after each month. NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office produced this global atmospheric reanalysis using the GEOS version 5.12.4 model.

Use Cases

• Modeling global precipitation patterns based on assimilated total precipitation data.
• Analyzing diurnal cycles of surface air temperature for climate trend studies.
• Estimating evaporation rates from turbulence data for hydrological modeling.
• Studying surface wind speed variability for renewable energy potential assessments.
• Validating climate models using bias-corrected total precipitation fields.

Strengths

• Data covers a long temporal range from 1980 to the present.
• Provides hourly data aggregated into monthly diurnal means.
• Spatial resolution is 0.625 degrees longitude by 0.5 degrees latitude.
• Includes assimilated diagnostics from NASA's latest reanalysis system (MERRA-2).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The 'surface' layer height varies (~60 meters), which may not represent ground-level conditions.

Provenance

Source

NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO)

Collection Method

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

Time Range

1980-present

Freshness

Updated monthly with ~3 week latency; last metadata update was 2026-03-13.

Geography

Global