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NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) of Atmospheric Layer Temperatures, Version 4

Published by National Centers for Environmental Information | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce | Catalog Last Checked: April 12, 2026 at 09:24 PM | Dataset Last Updated: January 01, 2018 at 12:00 AM
The Atmospheric Layer Temperature Climate Data Record (CDR) dataset is a monthly analysis of the tropospheric and stratospheric data using temperature sounding microwave radiometers flown on polar-orbiting weather satellites providing an important record of upper atmosphere temperatures by merging data from the older Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) and the new Advanced Microwave Sounding Units (AMSUs). The instruments measure the brightness temperature (Tb) for each channel and corresponds to an average temperature of the atmosphere averaged over that channel's weighting function. Global average and global anomaly maps on a 2.5 x 2.5 degree resolution are produced from each month's data from both the MSU and the AMSU for over a 31 year period (1978-2011) for each channel (layer); the Temperature Lower Troposphere (TLT); the Temperature Middle Troposphere (TMT); the Temperature Troposphere/Stratosphere (TTS) ; the Temperature Lower Stratosphere (TLS). UAT 4 Layer MW data is important to continue into the future to ensure the existence of a high-quality record of atmospheric temperatures for climate change detection and climate model verification activities. The data are available in netCDF-4 file format with variables containing standard deviation, quality flags, and projection information and will be updated monthly.

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Earth Science > Spectral/Engineering > microwave > Brightness Temperature Earth Science > Spectral/Engineering > microwave > Temperature Anomalies NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) Program NOAA OneStop Project Satellite ESSA > Environmental Science Services Administration NOAA-2 > National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-2 NOAA-3 > National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-3

Complete Metadata
@type dcat:Dataset
accessLevel non-public
accrualPeriodicity R/P1M
contactPoint 
                                            {
  "fn": "National Centers for Environmental Information",
  "@type": "vcard:Contact",
  "hasEmail": "mailto:rss_msu_contacts@noaa.gov"
}
describedByType application/octet-steam
description The Atmospheric Layer Temperature Climate Data Record (CDR) dataset is a monthly analysis of the tropospheric and stratospheric data using temperature sounding microwave radiometers flown on polar-orbiting weather satellites providing an important record of upper atmosphere temperatures by merging data from the older Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) and the new Advanced Microwave Sounding Units (AMSUs). The instruments measure the brightness temperature (Tb) for each channel and corresponds to an average temperature of the atmosphere averaged over that channel's weighting function. Global average and global anomaly maps on a 2.5 x 2.5 degree resolution are produced from each month's data from both the MSU and the AMSU for over a 31 year period (1978-2011) for each channel (layer); the Temperature Lower Troposphere (TLT); the Temperature Middle Troposphere (TMT); the Temperature Troposphere/Stratosphere (TTS) ; the Temperature Lower Stratosphere (TLS). UAT 4 Layer MW data is important to continue into the future to ensure the existence of a high-quality record of atmospheric temperatures for climate change detection and climate model verification activities. The data are available in netCDF-4 file format with variables containing standard deviation, quality flags, and projection information and will be updated monthly.
distribution 
                                            [
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "NCEI Dataset Landing Page",
    "accessURL": "https://doi.org/10.25921/EGRF-Q723",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Landing page for the dataset.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "NOAA CDR page",
    "accessURL": "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/climate-data-records/mean-layer-temperature-rss",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Access to the published CDR product, documentation and source code.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "NCEI Direct Download",
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    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Direct Download links for dataset files.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "NCEI THREDDS Catalog",
    "accessURL": "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/thredds/catalog/satellite/cdr-rss-mean-layer-temperature.html",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "THREDDS Data Service for this dataset.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Registry of Open Data on AWS",
    "accessURL": "https://registry.opendata.aws/noaa-cdr-fundamental/",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Information on AWS data access.",
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  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "AWS S3 Explorer (Region: us-east-1)",
    "accessURL": "https://noaa-cdr-mean-layer-temp-rss-pds.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Browse view to explore the S3 bucket.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
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    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Azure Landing Page (Region: us-east)",
    "accessURL": "https://microsoft.github.io/AIforEarthDataSets/data/noaa-cdr.html",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Information on Microsoft Azure data access.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
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    "title": "NCEI landing page for the superseded Version 3.3",
    "accessURL": "https://doi.org/10.7289/V5WQ01S4",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Superseded dataset landing page. This version should not be used as the primary research dataset. It may be appropriate to use for reproducing studies that used this earlier version.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Keywords",
    "accessURL": "https://earthdata.nasa.gov/about/gcmd/global-change-master-directory-gcmd-keywords",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "The information provided on this page seeks to define how the GCMD Keywords are structured, used and accessed. It also provides information on how users can participate in the further development of the keywords.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "CDR Program Contacts",
    "accessURL": "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/climate-data-records",
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]
identifier https://data.noaa.gov/waf/NOAA/NESDIS/ncei/aim/iso/xml/C01578.xml
issued 2018-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00
keyword 
                                            [
  "Earth Science > Spectral/Engineering >							microwave > Brightness Temperature",
  "Earth Science > Spectral/Engineering >							microwave > Temperature Anomalies",
  "NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) Program",
  "NOAA OneStop Project",
  "Satellite",
  "ESSA > Environmental Science Services							Administration",
  "NOAA-2 > National Oceanic &							Atmospheric Administration-2",
  "NOAA-3 > National Oceanic &							Atmospheric Administration-3",
  "NOAA-4 > National Oceanic &							Atmospheric Administration-4",
  "NOAA-5 > National Oceanic &							Atmospheric Administration-5",
  "NOAA-6 > National Oceanic &							Atmospheric Administration-6",
  "NOAA-7 > National Oceanic &							Atmospheric Administration-7",
  "NOAA-9 > National Oceanic &							Atmospheric Administration-9",
  "NOAA-11 > National Oceanic &							Atmospheric Administration-11",
  "NOAA-14 > National Oceanic &							Atmospheric Administration-14",
  "NOAA-15 > National Oceanic &							Atmospheric Administration-15",
  "SMS > Synchronous Meteorological							Satellites",
  "DMSP > Defense Meteorological Satellite							Program",
  "GOES > NOAA Geostationary Operational							Environmental Satellites",
  "GOES-7 > Geostationary Operational							Environmental Satellite 7",
  "GOES-8 > Geostationary Operational							Environmental Satellite 8",
  "GOES-9 > Geostationary Operational							Environmental Satellite 9",
  "TIROS-N > Television Infrared Observation							Satellite-N",
  "GMS > Japan Geostationary Meteorological							Satellite",
  "GMS-4 > Geostationary Meteorological							Satellite-4",
  "GMS-5 > Geostationary Meteorological							Satellite-5",
  "METEOSAT",
  "METEOSAT-5 > Meteosat Operational							Programme 2 (MOP-1)",
  "METEOSAT-6 > Meteosat Operational							Programme 3 (MOP-1)",
  "TERRA > Earth Observing System, TERRA							(AM-1)",
  "METOP > Meteorological Operational							Satellite",
  "AQUA > Earth Observing System, AQUA",
  "Vas > VISSR Atmospheric Sounder",
  "SSMI/S > Special Sensor Microwave							Imager/Sounder",
  "VHRR > Very High Resolution Radiometer",
  "VISSR > Visible and Infrared Spin Scan							Radiometer",
  "AVHRR > Advanced Very High Resolution							Radiometer",
  "SEVIRI > Spinning Enhanced Visible and							Infrared Imager",
  "MODIS > Moderate-Resolution Imaging							Spectroradiometer",
  "AMSR > Advanced Microwave Scanning							Radiometer",
  "AMSU-B > Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit							B (AMSU-B)",
  "ASCAT",
  "Geographic Region > Global",
  "Vertical Location > Stratosphere",
  "Vertical Location > Troposphere",
  "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCDC > National Climatic							Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers							for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of							Commerce"
]
language 
                                            []
license https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
modified 2018-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00
publisher 
                                            {
  "name": "National Centers for Environmental Information",
  "@type": "org:Organization"
}
references 
                                            [
  "https://doi.org/10.7289/V5WQ01S4"
]
rights otherRestrictions
spatial 180.0,-90.0,-180.0,90.0
temporal 1978-12-01T00:00:00+00:00/2025-02-01T00:00:00+00:00
title NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) of Atmospheric Layer Temperatures, Version 4

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