NASA Earthdata announces the release of the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2) Gridded Innovations and Observations (GIO) data products, Version 1. This dataset was generated through the NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) program by the Development of Gridded Innovations and Observations Supplement to MERRA-2 and Future GEOS-5 Data Products project, led by principal investigator Michael Bosilovich.
The MERRA-2 GIO products consist of gridded satellite and conventional observation data used to assimilate MERRA-2. The data have been processed from January 1980 through June 2024, with the potential for future extensions. The temporal coverage of the satellite data varies, corresponding to the operational start and end times of each instrument assimilated into MERRA-2, as documented in the MERRA-2 GIO File Specification. This dataset will help users understand how the presence and quality of observations directly affect the reanalysis output.
The dataset includes monthly brightness temperatures (Figure 1) from more than 70 satellite sensors, in addition to hourly and monthly conventional measurements such as wind, surface pressure, and temperature profiles (Figure 2). Furthermore, this dataset provides key assimilation statistics including forecast departures, root mean square differences, data counts, and bias corrections for satellite radiances.
