EOS MLS Data
The EOS MLS data describe a piecewise linear representation of vertical profiles of gas phase chemical abundances, temperature, and cloud ice density. The vertical coordinate is log10 (atmospheric pressure) with, typically, 6 breakpoints per decade pressure (. . ., 3.16, 2.15, 1.47, 1.00, 0.68, 0.46, 0.32 hPa, . . .). The vertical range of usefulness depends upon the specific data product and the data version. Some of the MLS observations are "noisy" in nature, with the consequence that negative values are reported - these should not be masked or ignored, as failure to include them (in the averages that are required of these data) will lead to an artificial positive bias.
It is essential that users of MLS data understand and apply the data quality and
status indicators available in the data files. These are described, for each
released version of MLS data, by MLS Data Quality Documents. These documents
also describe the expected precision, resolution, and known artifacts of each
product for that data version - and improvement priorities for future data
versions. They are available for MLS Version 2.2 (v2.2) data, the first
publicly released version, from the MLS Data Documentation page.
The MLS team very strongly encourages users to contact us with any questions on the data and if you find features that seem unreasonable. Although we have done our best to produce a reasonably sound data set within one year of becoming operational, we have no misconceptions that all the data artifacts have been identified. Feedback from users is of great benefit for improving the quality of the next data version. We also welcome, and encourage, users to just inform us that you are using MLS data. By knowing who you are, we can contact you with new data issues as we find them (the MLS team inspects all daily data, and reviews the findings on a weekly basis). Contacts can be made via e-mail to data@mls.jpl.nasa.gov or to the individual(s) listed in the table below.
MLS v2.2 data are available from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Earth Sciences (GES) Data and Information Services Center (DISC). The following data resources are available at the MLS website:
The v2.2 standard data products and the status, useful vertical range and MLS contact person for each product is given in the following table. All product data files also contain values for the column above the tropopause determined from MLS temperature using the WMO tropopause definition. The temperature file also contains the inferred tropopause pressure.
EOS MLS Version 2.2 Data
(Products with a * require significant averaging over most
or all of their vertical range in order to obtain a useful signal-to-noise ratio.)
In addition to the standard data products, the MLS algorithms also produce data for many "diagnositic" products. A typical "diagnostic" product is a product that is retrieved from a different spectral range than a standard product.
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