Monthly Atmospheric Layer Temperature Analysis from Satellite Microwave Sounders

Satellite microwave radiometers provide a 31-year monthly record of upper atmosphere temperatures from 1978 to 2011. The dataset merges brightness temperature measurements from the Microwave Sounding Unit and Advanced Microwave Sounding Units. NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information produced this Climate Data Record for climate change detection and model verification.

Use Cases

• Analyze long-term temperature anomalies in the Temperature Lower Troposphere (TLT) layer for climate change detection.
• Compare trends between the Temperature Middle Troposphere (TMT) and Temperature Lower Stratosphere (TLS) layers to study atmospheric dynamics.
• Validate climate model outputs using the Temperature Troposphere/Stratosphere (TTS) channel's global average maps at 2.5-degree resolution.
• Assess data quality and uncertainty by examining the standard deviation and quality flag variables included in the netCDF files.

Strengths

• 31-year continuous temporal coverage from 1978 to 2011.
• Global spatial coverage with data on a 2.5 x 2.5 degree grid.
• Merged data record from multiple satellite instruments (MSU and AMSUs) for consistency.

Limitations

• Data record ends in 2011, creating a temporal gap for recent climate analysis.
• Specific row counts and dataset size are not provided in the description.
• Relies on satellite brightness temperature retrievals, which are indirect measurements.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NOAA_NCEI).

Collection Method

Analysis of temperature sounding microwave radiometers flown on polar-orbiting weather satellites.

Time Range

1978 to 2011.

Freshness

Monthly updates (for the ongoing record).

Geography

Global.