MERRA-2 FAQ: Does MERRA-2 have PM 1.0, PM2.5, and PM10 data?

[GES DISC - jimacker]

MERRA-2 does not provide total surface Particulate Matter (PM) mass concentration, such as PM1, PM2.5, and PM10, in any collections. It does, however, provide individual species, e.g., sulfate, organic matter, black carbon, dust, and sea salt PM2.5 concentrations in the hourly collection M2T1NXAER_5.12.4 – or M2TMNXAER_5.12.4 and M2TUNXAER_5.12.4 for the monthly mean collection and the monthly mean diurnal collection, respectively.

The MERRA-2 FAQs provide information on particulate matter, such as the formula and collection used to calculate the MERRA-2 total surface PM 2.5, PM1, and PM10 mass concentration, and the aerosol bin size.

Please read the MERRA-2 File Specification to find data collections containing the aerosol variables indicated in the formula. The MERRA-2 project page has more information about MERRA-2.

In addition, GES DISC provides value-added total PM2.5 products:

• The MERRA-2 total PM2.5 surface concentration and column density at hourly and monthly frequencies at Giovanni (read the service release article).
  The MERRA-2 monthly mean surface total PM2.5 product for world countries, collection name: M2_TMAX_PM25 (read the data release article).
  The MERRA-2 bias corrected hourly surface total PM2.5 mass concentration product, collection name: MERRA2_CNN_HAQAST_PM25 (read the data release article).