MSUUTT: Daily Upper Troposphere Temperatures from Satellite Microwave Sounding

Gridded upper tropospheric temperatures derived from Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) instruments on several platforms. The algorithm combines MSU channels 3 and 4, applying a LIMB 93 correction based on latitude, longitude, month, and scan angle. Data is provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling upper tropospheric temperature trends based on gridded satellite measurements.
• Applying limb corrections for atmospheric data based on latitude, longitude, month, and scan angle parameters.
• Analyzing thermal emission of radiation by molecular oxygen near 60 GHz for atmospheric studies.
• Studying climate variability using a weighted grid assignment method for polar regions.

Strengths

• Data incorporates the LIMB 93 limb correction algorithm based on multiple spatial and temporal factors.
• Horizontal averaging is used to fill empty grid boxes, suggesting data completeness efforts.
• Derived from MSU instruments on several different platforms, indicating multi-source validation.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Derived from Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) instruments using an algorithm based on Spencer and Christy (1990).

Time Range

Temporal coverage is not specified in the provided metadata.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:19:57.757993; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage with a weighted grid assignment method for regions north of 66.7N and south of 66.7S.