UKMO UARS Assimilated Data: Stratospheric and Tropospheric Model Analyses

Two sets of assimilated meteorological data are available from the UK Meteorological Office for the UARS project. The data is produced by a global primitive equation model, assimilating observations from the World Weather Watch network and satellite data. Fields include temperature, geopotential height, and wind components on a 2.5° x 3.75° global grid interpolated to 22 pressure levels from 1000 to 0.316 hPa.

Use Cases

• Validate satellite-based temperature retrievals based on the independent correlative analysis fields.
• Study stratosphere-troposphere exchange dynamics based on the model's vertical coverage from the surface to above the stratopause.
• Analyze global wind patterns based on the zonal, meridional, and vertical wind fields on a staggered Arakawa B grid.
• Assess the impact of assimilating specific UARS instrument data (e.g., ISAMS temperature, HRDI winds) on analysis fields.

Strengths

• Data is produced by a numerical forecast model adapted from the UK Met Office's operational system, suggesting a robust methodology.
• Vertical coverage extends from the Earth's surface to above the stratopause, with a resolution of about 1.6 km in the stratosphere.
• Provides an independent analysis for validation, with fields specified on a consistent 2.5° x 3.75° global grid.

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 ML tasks.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

United Kingdom Meteorological Office (UKMO), held at the British Atmospheric Data Centre.

Collection Method

Data assimilation fitting a numerical forecast model to a heterogeneous mixture of surface, upper-air, and satellite observations.

Time Range

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Freshness

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Geography

Global coverage on a 2.5° latitude by 3.75° longitude grid.