How to convert the surface geopotential height to the surface elevation in MERRA-2?

by **GES DISC - ingridgs** » Tue Sep 01, 2026 2:16 pm America/New_York

Answer:
In the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications Version 2 (MERRA-2), the surface geopotential height (PHIS) is available in a number of collections; for example, const_2d_asm_Nx (M2C0NXASM_5.12.4). The surface elevation (Z) can be calculated as:

Z (m) = surface geopotential height (m2 / s2 ) / g
where
g = 9.81 m / s2 is the acceleration of gravity.

More information on MERRA-2 data is available in the MERRA_2 documentation.

Related Data Collections:
M2C0NXASM_5.12.4
M2C0NXCTM_5.12.4
M2I3NPASM_5.12.4
M2I3NVASM_5.12.4