Summary

Description

ML2CH3CL is the EOS Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) standard product for methyl chloride derived from radiances measured by the 640 GHz radiometer. The current version is 3.3. Data coverage is complete from August 8, 2004 to current. Spatial coverage is near-global (-82° to +82° latitude), with each profile spaced 1.5° or ~165 km along the orbit track (roughly 15 orbits per day). The recommended useful vertical range is between 147 and 4.64 hPa, and the vertical resolution ranges between 4-6 km in the lower stratosphere and 8-10 km above 14 hPa. Users of the ML2CH3CL data product should read section 3.3 of the EOS MLS Level 2 Version 3.3 Quality Document for more information (http://mls.jpl.nasa.gov/data/v3-3_data_quality_document.pdf). Users are encouraged to register with the MLS science team at https://mls.jpl.nasa.gov/forms/reguser.php to obtain updates and information about this data product. The data are stored in the version 5 EOS Hierarchical Data Format (HDF-EOS5), which is based on the version 5 Hierarchical Data Format, or HDF5. Each file contains one swath object (with profile data), with a set of data and geolocation fields, swath attributes, and metadata. The data fields include the geophysical parameter values and precision (standard deviation), convergence values, data quality, and a status flag. The geolocation fields include a time stamp in TAI-93 format (seconds since January 1, 1993), geodetic latitude and longitude, and pressure level values, as well as local solar time, solar zenith angle, line of sight angle, and orbit geodetic angle. There is one file per day.