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Mars Analysis Correction Data Assimilation (MACDA): Atmospheric and surface fields produced from assimilated MGS/TES, ODY/THEMIS, and MRO/MCS observations, v2.0

This dataset contains 268 files of basic gridded atmospheric and surface data for the planet Mars, each covering a period of 30 sols (Martian mean solar days). The fields are produced by assimilating retrieved atmospheric quantities using the Analysis Correction (AC) scheme in the UK spectral version (Oxford University and The Open University) of the Mars Planetary Climate Model (Mars-PCM), which is maintained by the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique at Sorbonne Université in Paris, France.

Observations are taken from the Mars Global Surveyor/Thermal Emission Spectrometer (MGS/TES), the Mars Odyssey/Thermal Emission Imaging System (ODY/THEMIS), and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter/Mars Climate Sounder (MRO/MCS) instruments. Assimilated MGS/TES retrievals include nadir thermal profiles below approximately 40 km altitude and column dust optical depth values. Assimilated ODY/THEMIS retrievals include column dust optical depth values. Assimilated MRO/MCS retrievals include limb thermal profiles and dust extinction profiles below approximately 80 km altitude, as well as estimates of column dust optical depth values.

The dataset covers 12 Martian years (MY), from MY 24 through MY 35 (i.e. from July 1998 through February 2021). Each file contains 30 sols, and each sol contains variables at 12 times. TES, THEMIS, and MCS retrievals are assimilated separately, with no overlap. Several 30-sol periods at the beginning of MY 24 contain no available observations; in these cases the model is run with no assimilation (free run).

The file name and the "assimilation_run_type" global attribute indicate which observing system is assimilated in each file: MGS/TES, ODY/THEMIS, MRO/MCS, MRO/MCS_nodust (only thermal profiles, no dust extinction profiles nor column dust optical depth values), MRO/MCS_nodustprof (only thermal profiles and column dust optical depth values, no dust extinction profiles), or free-run (i.e. no assimilated observations because retrievals are not available).

Simple

Date (Publication)
2026-01-30T09:22:14
Date (Creation)
2026-01-30T09:22:14
Identifier
https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/cd037a9ea387438fabf4d674dbe53088
Identifier
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis / cd037a9ea387438fabf4d674dbe53088
Identifier
doi / 10.5285/cd037a9ea387438fabf4d674dbe53088
Author
  Unavailable - Valeanu, Alex ( author )
Author
  Unavailable - Rajendran, Kylash ( author )
Author
  Unavailable - Montabone, Luca ( author )
Author
  Unavailable - Read, Peter L. ( author )
Custodian
  NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - custodian
RAL Space , STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Campus , Didcot , OX11 0QX , United Kingdom
01235446432
Distributor
  NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - distributor
RAL Space , STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Campus , Didcot , OX11 0QX , United Kingdom
01235446432
Principal investigator
  Unavailable - Montabone, Luca ( principal_investigator )
pointofContact
  NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - point_of_contact
RAL Space , STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Campus , Didcot , OX11 0QX , United Kingdom
01235446432
Publisher
  NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - publisher
RAL Space , STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Campus , Didcot , OX11 0QX , United Kingdom
01235446432
Maintenance and update frequency
notPlanned Not planned
Update scope
dataset Dataset
Keywords
  • Mars
  • Martian
  • MGCM
  • dust
  • dust and temperature assimilation
GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
  • atmospheric conditions
Access constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
Public data: access to these data is available to both registered and non-registered users.
Use constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
Under the following licence http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/, appropriate use of these data may fall under any use. This message is intended as guidance, always read the full licence. When using these data you must cite them correctly using the citation given on the CEDA Data Catalogue record.
Spatial representation type
grid Grid
Metadata language
EnglishEnglish
Topic category
  • Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere
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S
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Begin date
1998-07-14T00:00:00
End date
2021-07-02T23:59:59
Unique resource identifier
WGS 84
Distribution format
  • Data are NetCDF formatted ()

Distributor
  NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - Data Center Contact
RAL Space , STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Campus , Didcot , OX11 0QX , United Kingdom
01235446432
OnLine resource
CEDA Data Catalogue Page

Detail and access information for the resource

OnLine resource
DOWNLOAD

Download Data

OnLine resource
Information on TES instrument: Christensen, P.R. et al., 2001

No further details.

OnLine resource
Information on TES retrievals: Smith, M.D., 2004

No further details.

OnLine resource
Information on TES column dust optical depth retrievals (version 2023): Montabone, L. et al., 2023

No further details.

Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset

Conformance result

Date (Publication)
2010-12-08
Statement

The atmospheric and surface data included in this dataset are produced by assimilating retrieved atmospheric quantities using the Analysis Correction (AC) scheme in the UK spectral version (Oxford University and The Open University) of the Mars Planetary Climate Model (Mars-PCM), which is maintained by the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique at Sorbonne Université in Paris, France. The model version used is labelled Mars_PCM-UK-spectral_v5.2. This dataset represents version 2 of the MACDA project and assimilates retrievals from observations by the Mars Global Surveyor/Thermal Emission Spectrometer (MGS/TES), the Mars Odyssey/Thermal Emission Imaging System (ODY/THEMIS), and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter/Mars Climate Sounder (MRO/MCS) instruments. TES column dust optical depth retrievals are version 2023 (http://doi.org/10.17189/kwez-jq47), and MCS retrievals are version 5.2.

Data produced by the project team were then supplied for archiving at the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA).

File identifier
cd037a9ea387438fabf4d674dbe53088 XML
Metadata language
EnglishEnglish
Character set
8-bit variable size UCS Transfer Format, based on ISO/IEC 10646 UTF8
Parent identifier
Mars Analysis Correction Data Assimilation (MACDA) Data Collection 01c44fb05fbd6e428efbd57969a11177
Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset
Date stamp
2026-05-06T02:28:41
Metadata standard name
UK GEMINI
Metadata standard version
2.3
Point of contact
  NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis
RAL Space , STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Campus , Didcot , OX11 0QX , United Kingdom
01235446432
 
 

Overviews

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W
thumbnail


Keywords

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
atmospheric conditions

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