juliensimon/mars-perseverance-weather

Mars Perseverance MEDA Weather

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Part of a dataset collection on Hugging Face.

Dataset description

Surface weather measurements from the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) on NASA's Perseverance rover in Jezero Crater, Mars. Combines three derived data products from the PDS Atmospheres Node: atmospheric pressure (PS), relative humidity (RHS), and thermal infrared upward/downward longwave irradiance (TIRS).

Records are merged on spacecraft clock (SCLK) to produce a unified weather timeline, downsampled to 1-minute cadence from the original ~1 Hz raw data. This preserves 100% of the time coverage while keeping the dataset manageable.

The Martian atmosphere is thin (mean surface pressure around 610 Pa, less than 1% of Earth's) and composed predominantly of CO2. Despite its low density, it drives vigorous meteorological phenomena: strong diurnal thermal tides produce a regular daily pressure oscillation of several percent, seasonal sublimation and condensation of the polar CO2 ice caps cause the global mean pressure to vary by roughly 25% over a Martian year, and regional and global dust storms can dramatically alter atmospheric opacity and thermal structure.

The thermal infrared measurements from TIRS are particularly valuable because they serve as a proxy for ground and near-surface air temperature. Humidity measurements, though sparse and concentrated in nighttime hours, constrain the water cycle in equatorial Mars and the exchange of water vapor between the regolith and atmosphere.

This dataset is suitable for tabular regression, time-series forecasting tasks.

Schema

Column	Type	Description	Sample	Null %
sclk	int64	Spacecraft clock tick count (continuous integer, ~1 Hz rate); serves as the primary unique timestamp for merging sensor data	820207797	0.0%
lmst	str	Local Mean Solar Time at Jezero Crater (format 'sol HH:MM:SS'); based on a fixed Mars rotation period	01727M00:00:00.366	2.1%
ltst	str	Local True Solar Time at Jezero Crater (format 'sol HH:MM:SS'); corrected for Mars orbital eccentricity -- differs from LMST by up to ~50 minutes	1727 00:39:32	2.1%
pressure_pa	float64	Atmospheric pressure in Pa at Jezero Crater floor; mean ~750 Pa (0.75% of Earth sea level); seasonal range ~600-900 Pa due to CO2 polar cap condensation/sublimation	661.41	2.1%
transducer	float64	Pressure transducer redundancy identifier (1 or 2); MEDA PS has two sensors for cross-validation	1.0	2.1%
relative_humidity_pct	float64	Local relative humidity in percent (0-100); peaks near nighttime when temperatures approach frost point; sparse -- null for most daytime readings	4.82	19.4%
humidity_sensor_temp_k	float64	Temperature of the humidity sensor element in Kelvin; required for humidity calibration	208.67	19.4%
humidity_sensor_temp_uncertainty_k	float64	Humidity sensor temperature uncertainty in Kelvin	0.21	19.4%
volume_mixing_ratio	float64	Water vapor volume mixing ratio (mol/mol, dimensionless); Mars typical values 10-300 ppmv depending on season and latitude; null when humidity sensor not active	42.48	71.2%
downward_lw_irradiance_wm2	float64	Downward longwave (thermal IR, 8-50 um) irradiance in W/m2; measures atmospheric thermal emission -- sensitive to dust loading and cloud cover	29.11	0.8%
downward_lw_irradiance_uncertainty_wm2	float64	Downward LW irradiance measurement uncertainty in W/m2	1.24	0.8%
upward_lw_irradiance_wm2	float64	Upward longwave irradiance from the surface in W/m2; proxy for ground skin temperature via Stefan-Boltzmann: T_surface = (upward_lw / 5.67e-8)^0.25 K	93.7	0.8%
upward_lw_irradiance_uncertainty_wm2	float64	Upward LW irradiance measurement uncertainty in W/m2	0.79	0.8%
rsm_head_outside_tirs_up_fov	float64	Quality flag: True if RSM (Remote Sensing Mast) head is outside TIRS upward-looking field of view	0.0	0.8%
sun_outside_tirs_fov	float64	Quality flag: True if Sun is outside TIRS field of view (no direct solar contamination)	1.0	0.8%
rover_low_tilt	float64	Quality flag: True if rover platform tilt is below threshold for valid TIRS measurements	1.0	0.8%
tirs_ground_not_in_shadow	float64	Quality flag: True if TIRS ground footprint is not in shadow from rover or mast	1.0	0.8%
rover_still	float64	Quality flag: True if rover is stationary (no drive-induced vibration in measurements)	1.0	0.8%
sol	Int64	Perseverance sol number since landing; sol 0 = Feb 18 2021; each sol ~1.0275 Earth days	1727	0.0%

Quick stats

• 118,429 measurements across 125 sols (sol 1727--1859)
• Mean surface pressure: 717.9 Pa (range 636.1--774.9 Pa)
• 95,439 humidity readings available

Usage

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/mars-perseverance-weather", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/mars-perseverance-weather", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# Daily pressure cycle for a given sol
sol_100 = df[df["sol"] == 100]
sol_100.plot(x="ltst", y="pressure_pa", title="Sol 100 pressure")

# Seasonal pressure variation (Mars has ~25% annual pressure swing)
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

daily_avg = df.groupby("sol")["pressure_pa"].mean()
daily_avg.plot(title="Mars surface pressure by sol", figsize=(12, 4))
plt.ylabel("Pressure (Pa)")
plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()

# Ground temperature proxy from upward thermal IR
df["ground_temp_proxy"] = (df["upward_lw_irradiance_wm2"] / 5.67e-8) ** 0.25
daily_temp = df.groupby("sol")["ground_temp_proxy"].agg(["min", "max"])
daily_temp.plot(title="Ground temperature range by sol")
plt.show()

Data source

https://pds-atmospheres.nmsu.edu/PDS/data/PDS4/Mars2020/mars2020_meda/data_derived_env/

Update schedule

Monthly (1st of each month at 08:00 UTC)

Related datasets

• juliensimon/mars-craters-robbins

• juliensimon/neo-close-approaches

• juliensimon/nasa-exoplanets

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About the author

Created by Julien Simon — AI Operating Partner at Fortino Capital. Part of the Space Datasets collection.

Citation

@dataset{mars_perseverance_weather,
  title = {Mars Perseverance MEDA Weather},
  author = {Simon, Julien},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/mars-perseverance-weather},
  publisher = {Hugging Face},
  note = {Derived from NASA PDS Atmospheres Node, New Mexico State University, https://pds-atmospheres.nmsu.edu/PDS/data/PDS4/Mars2020/mars2020_meda/data_derived_env/}
}

License

CC-BY-4.0