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).

Date (Publication): 2026-01-30T09:22:14

Date (Creation): 2026-01-30T09:22:14

Citation identifier: https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/cd037a9ea387438fabf4d674dbe53088

Citation identifier: NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis / cd037a9ea387438fabf4d674dbe53088

Citation identifier: doi / 10.5285/cd037a9ea387438fabf4d674dbe53088

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Unavailable	Valeanu, Alex	Unavailable	Author
Unavailable	Rajendran, Kylash	Unavailable	Author
Unavailable	Montabone, Luca	Unavailable	Author
Unavailable	Read, Peter L.	Unavailable	Author
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	Custodian
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	Distributor
Unavailable	Montabone, Luca	Unavailable	Principal investigator
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	pointofContact
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	Publisher

Maintenance and update frequency: Not planned

Update scope: Dataset

Keywords

Mars
Martian
MGCM
dust
dust and temperature assimilation

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

atmospheric conditions

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Public data: access to these data is available to both registered and non-registered users.

Use constraints: 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

Language: English

Topic category

Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere

Begin date: 1998-07-14T00:00:00

End date: 2021-07-02T23:59:59

Unique resource identifier: WGS 84

Distribution format

Name	Version
Data are NetCDF formatted

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	Distributor

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/cd037a9ea387438fabf4d674dbe53088	CEDA Data Catalogue Page

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://data.ceda.ac.uk/badc/mgs/data/macda/v2-0	DOWNLOAD

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://doi.org/10.1029/2000JE001370	Information on TES instrument: Christensen, P.R. et al., 2001

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2003.09.010	Information on TES retrievals: Smith, M.D., 2004

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://atmos.nmsu.edu/PDS/data/PDS4/mgs_tes_atmos_dust-ice/document/user_guide_TES_COD.pdf	Information on TES column dust optical depth retrievals (version 2023): Montabone, L. et al., 2023

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Conformance result

Title: Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

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).

Metadata

File identifier: cd037a9ea387438fabf4d674dbe53088 XML

Metadata language: English

Character set: UTF8

Parent identifier: Mars Analysis Correction Data Assimilation (MACDA) Data Collection
01c44fb05fbd6e428efbd57969a11177

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Date stamp: 2026-03-11T03:28:31

Metadata standard name: UK GEMINI

Metadata standard version: 2.3

Metadata author

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	Point of contact

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