MLS/Aura: Daily Binned Carbon Monoxide Mixing Ratios from Satellite, 2004 to Present

From August 2, 2004 to the present, this dataset provides daily binned measurements of carbon monoxide (CO) mixing ratios in the atmosphere. The data is produced by NASA's EOS Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) instrument, with near-global spatial coverage from -82 to +82 degrees latitude. It is archived in netCDF4 format, with each file containing one year of data organized into four group objects for different vertical and zonal grids.

Use Cases

• Modeling global carbon monoxide transport based on near-global, multi-year satellite measurements.
• Analyzing vertical profiles of atmospheric composition based on data binned on pressure and potential temperature grids.
• Studying polar vortex chemistry using the vortex average vs potential temperature data group.
• Investigating interannual variability in atmospheric trace gases based on the continuous data record since 2004.

Strengths

• Continuous temporal coverage from August 2004 to the present.
• Near-global spatial coverage from -82 to +82 degrees latitude at 4-degree zonal increments.
• Data includes statistical measures (average, min, max, std dev, rms) for each binned measurement.
• Archived in netCDF4 format, which is compatible with standard HDF5 readers and tools.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The recommended useful vertical range is between 215 and 0.00464 hPa, indicating data outside this range may be less reliable.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Derived from radiances measured by the 640 GHz radiometer on the EOS Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) satellite.

Time Range

August 2, 2004 to current

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 00:05:33.365852; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Near-global (-82 to +82 degrees latitude)