RAMSES II: Global Daily Atmospheric Profiles from Suomi NPP ATMS

Global one-degree gridded data provides daily atmospheric profiles and surface properties derived from microwave observations. The dataset contains retrieved geophysical parameters, including temperature and water vapor profiles, surface skin temperature, and sea surface temperature, using the RAMSES II algorithm on Suomi NPP ATMS instrument data. It is an all-weather product without cloud clearing, and includes quality control flags for each variable.

Use Cases

• Analyzing global atmospheric temperature profiles based on retrieved upper-air temperature data.
• Studying water vapor distribution and humidity indicators using specific and relative humidity profiles.
• Monitoring sea surface temperature and land surface skin temperature for climate trend analysis.
• Validating weather models with all-weather retrievals that are not limited by cloud cover.

Strengths

• Provides all-weather retrievals, as the algorithm lacks a cloud clearing process.
• Includes quality control values (0, 1, 2) for each variable to indicate data usability.
• Derived from a cross-track scanner with 22 channels across a wide spectral range (23-183 GHz).

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all sources.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without clear terms.
• The most recent update date (2026-03-12) is anomalously far in the future, suggesting potential metadata error.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Generated from the RAMSES II microwave-only retrieval algorithm using observations from the Suomi NPP Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) instrument.

Time Range

Daily

Freshness

2026-03-12 19:44:47.067420

Geography

Global, gridded at one degree latitude by one degree longitude.