MLS/Aura Daily Binned Nitrous Oxide Mixing Ratios on Global Grids

Near-global (-82 to +82 degrees latitude) daily binned nitrous oxide (N2O) mixing ratios derived from EOS Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) satellite radiances. The data version is 4.2, with a spatial resolution of 4 degrees latitude by 5 degrees longitude and a recommended vertical range from 68.1 to 0.464 hPa. It is produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and archived in netCDF4 format.

Use Cases

• Modeling stratospheric transport and mixing based on N2O distributions across pressure and potential temperature grids.
• Analyzing long-term trends in nitrous oxide concentrations based on daily, near-global satellite observations.
• Studying polar vortex dynamics using the vortex average vs potential temperature data group.
• Calculating zonal mean distributions of N2O for climate model validation.

Strengths

• Spatial coverage is near-global, spanning -82 to +82 degrees latitude.
• Data includes multiple statistical measures per grid (average, min, max, standard deviation, rms).
• Vertical resolution is between 4 and 6 km, providing detailed atmospheric profile information.
• 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.
• Instrument change occurred on August 6, 2013, which may introduce measurement biases requiring expert evaluation.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

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

Time Range

Daily data from launch until the processing date; specific start date is not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 00:32:57.174758; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Near-global, from -82 to +82 degrees latitude at 4° lat by 5° lon resolution.