These files "STEM-Aerosol.ICARTT-90x60.July.nc" and "STEM-Aerosol.ICARTT-90x60.Aug.nc" includes STEM-2K3 chemical and MM5 meteorological fields for ICARTT periods. All the data files are in EPA IOAPI format (http://www.baronams.com/products/ioapi/AA.html#conventions), a convention of NetCDF. You can read them with NetCDF code. Their coordinate information can be found in (http://www.baronams.com/products/ioapi/INCLUDE.html#parms). You can use ncdump to view this information, too. For example, under UNIX $ ncdump -h STEM-Aerosol.ICARTT-90x60.July.nc You will the following print out : dimensions: TSTEP = UNLIMITED ; // (250 currently) DATE-TIME = 2 ; LAY = 21 ; VAR = 17 ; ROW = 62 ; COL = 97 ; which means that this file includes 250 time steps, X-dimension (COL) is 97, Y-dimension (ROW) is 62, and Z-dimension (LAY) is 21. You will also find // global attributes: :IOAPI_VERSION = "2.2 2002080 (March 21, 2002)" ; :FTYPE = 1 ; :CDATE = 2005179 ; :CTIME = 190820 ; :WDATE = 2005179 ; :WTIME = 190820 ; :SDATE = 2004183 ; :STIME = 0 ; :TSTEP = 30000 ; "SDATE" is file starting date in YYYYDDD, where DDD is the julian day, and 2004183 is July 1, 2004; "STIME" is the start time in HHMMSS, and "TSTEP" is time step also in HHMMSS. In the following grid information, VGTOP = 1.f ; :VGLVLS = 0.99900001f, 0.99650002f, 0.99250001f, 0.98500001f, 0.97000003f, 0.94499999f, 0.90999997f, 0.87f, 0.82500005f, 0.76999998f, 0.71000004f, 0.64999998f, 0.59000003f, 0.52999997f, 0.47f, 0.41f, 0.34999999f, 0.285f, 0.21000001f, 0.125f, 0.039999999f, 0.f You will find that the model vertical grid (MM5's sigma-p in reference atmosphere instead of realistic atmosphere). You can find corresponding height in meter above ground level in "mm5height.m97x62-icartt-21Layer.nc". The grid geographic information can be found in "TOPO-icartt-m97x62.nc". STEM-2K3 (Tang et al., 2004, JGR 109, D19S23, doi:10.1029/2003JD004201) has 4-bin aerosols: 0.1-0.3um, 0.3-1.0um, 1.0-2.5um, and 2.5-10um in diameter. In these files, BC1 means the black carbin in 0.1-0.3um, and Na4 is the sodium in the bin of 2.5-10um. If you have any question about the data. contact Youhua Tang (ytang@cgrer.uiowa.edu)