Differences in file names in certain waves of MERRA 2

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michaelwindsorcurtin
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Differences in file names in certain waves of MERRA 2

by michaelwindsorcurtin » Fri May 16, 2025 2:16 am America/New_York

Hello,

I have been looping code to generate URLs and subsequently download MERRA2 data. I have noticed that for a number of months in the monthly data the URL is slightly different. For example
MERRA2_400.tavgM_2d_flx_Nx.202008.nc4 for August 2020
MERRA2_401.tavgM_2d_flx_Nx.202009.nc4 for September 2020

I understand that the suffix after MERRA2 is 400 for the 2010s and 300 for the 2000s but I am wondering if there is a reason that this file has a different suffix of 401 rather than 400. This also occurs for June, July, August and September of 2021.

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GES DISC - xpan2
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Re: Differences in file names in certain waves of MERRA 2

by GES DISC - xpan2 » Mon May 19, 2025 11:27 am America/New_York

Dear user,

The filename prefix was changed if a data file was reprocessed. Click this link to view the records of MERRA-2 reprocessed data and how the filename is changed (https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/information/documents?title=Records%20of%20MERRA-2%20Data%20Reprocessing%20and%20Service%20Changes).

FYI: MERRA-2 FAQ: MERRA-2 has multiple processing streams, what are the transition dates? (viewtopic.php?t=6467)

NASA GES DISC MERRA-2 support team

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