MERRA-2 Monthly Gridded Innovations and Observation CONV V1 (M2_CONV)

GIO data are created by binning observations and innovations onto grids consistent with MERRA-2 specifications and storing them in NetCDF format for convenient access. This dataset serves multiple purposes: it shows which data was assimilated (where and when), enables systematic evaluation of observing system impacts in reanalysis, provides a resource for teaching data assimilation concepts, and offers training data for machine learning and artificial intelligence applications.

This collection includes monthly mean values for various measurements (temperature profile [tv], water vapor profile [qv], zonal wind [u], meridional wind [v], surface pressure [ps], and sea surface temperature [sst]) from several conventional observation sources, including radiosondes, land surface stations, aircraft, scatterometers, and drifting buoys. The dataset also contains observation frequency counts (obrate) and assimilation statistics, including: (a) forecast departure, or observation minus forecast (OmF), and (b) analysis departure, or observation minus analysis (OmA).