ML3DZT: Daily Binned Atmospheric Temperature from Aura Satellite

MLS/Aura Level 3 Daily Binned Temperature on Zonal and Similar Grids V005 (ML3DZT) is a NASA dataset providing near-global atmospheric temperature measurements from the Microwave Limb Sounder. The data covers latitudes from -82 to +82 degrees at 4-degree increments and a vertical range from 261 to 0.001 hPa. Each archived netCDF4 file contains one year of data with zonal mean and vortex average groups, including statistical fields like average, min, max, standard deviation, and RMS.

Use Cases

• Modeling stratospheric temperature trends based on daily binned zonal mean data.
• Analyzing atmospheric vortex dynamics based on equivalent latitude vs potential temperature grids.
• Studying vertical temperature profiles and resolution based on data from 261 to 0.001 hPa.
• Validating climate models using near-global coverage from -82 to +82 degrees latitude.

Strengths

• Data files contain one full year of measurements per file, facilitating temporal analysis.
• Spatial coverage is near-global, spanning from -82 to +82 degrees latitude.
• Vertical resolution is specified as between 3 and 6 kilometers within the useful range.
• Data includes multiple statistical measures (average, min, max, standard deviation, RMS) for each grid group.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for specific ML tasks.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Derived from radiances measured by the 118 and 240 GHz radiometers on the EOS Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS).

Time Range

Data files contain one year of data; specific years are not stated in the provided description.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 00:32:01.619309; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Near-global coverage from -82 to +82 degrees latitude at 4-degree latitude zonal increments.