MERRA-2 Monthly Diurnal Atmospheric Energy and Water Diagnostics

MERRA-2 tavgU_2d_int_Nx provides monthly diurnal means of vertically integrated water and energy diagnostics from NASA's global atmospheric reanalysis. The dataset covers the period from 1980 to the present, updated with a latency of approximately three weeks after each month. It is produced by NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office using the GEOS version 5.12.4 model.

Use Cases

• Analyze diurnal cycles of autoconversion loss of cloud water using hourly timestamps from 00:30 to 23:30 UTC.
• Model convective source of cloud ice (water) trends across the 0.625 x 0.5 degree global grid.
• Calculate eastward and northward fluxes of atmospheric ice, liquid, and vapor for energy transport studies.
• Investigate long-term trends in total potential energy tendency and kinetic energy tendency from 1980 onward.

Strengths

• Continuous temporal coverage from 1980 to present, providing over 40 years of data.
• Data is produced by NASA GMAO using the validated GEOS 5.12.4 model.
• Provides hourly diurnal means across a global 0.625 x 0.5 degree spatial grid.

Limitations

• Specific row count, column count, and dataset size are unknown.
• Data has a latency of approximately three weeks, not suitable for real-time analysis.
• Reprocessed data files have different naming conventions, which may complicate version tracking.

Provenance

Source

NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO)

Collection Method

Generated via the Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS) version 5.12.4 atmospheric reanalysis.

Time Range

1980 to present

Freshness

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

Geography

Global coverage at 0.625 x 0.5 degree resolution.