ML3DZN2O: Daily Binned Nitrous Oxide Mixing Ratios from Aura Satellite

Daily binned measurements of nitrous oxide (N2O) mixing ratios from the EOS Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) satellite instrument. The data is provided by NASA's Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) in netCDF4 format, with each file containing one year of data. Spatial coverage is near-global from -82 to +82 degrees latitude at 4-degree zonal increments.

Use Cases

• Modeling stratospheric transport and chemistry based on nitrous oxide mixing ratios.
• Analyzing latitudinal and vertical distribution of N2O based on zonal mean data.
• Studying polar vortex dynamics based on equivalent latitude vs potential temperature grids.
• Investigating instrument performance and data continuity based on the switch from 640 GHz to 190 GHz radiometers in 2013.

Strengths

• Data files contain one year of data, providing substantial temporal context.
• Spatial coverage is near-global (-82 to +82 degrees latitude) at 4-degree latitude increments.
• Vertical resolution is between 4 and 6 km across the recommended useful range from 68.1 to 0.464 hPa.
• Data is archived in netCDF4 format, which is compatible with HDF5 readers and standard scientific tools.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

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

Time Range

Data files contain one year of data; specific start/end dates are not provided in the description.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 00:03:40.061226; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Near-global coverage from -82 to +82 degrees latitude.