SAMSN7L3ZMTG is the Nimbus-7 Stratospheric and Mesospheric Sounder (SAMS) Level 3 Zonal Means Composition Data Product. The Earth's surface is divided into 2.5-deg latitudinal zones that extend from 50 deg South to 67.5 deg North. Retrieved mixing ratios of nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) are averaged over day and night, along with errors, at 31 pressure levels between 50 and 0.125 mbar. Because the N2O and CH4 channels cannot function simultaneously, only one type of measurement is made for any nominal day. The data were recovered from the original magnetic tapes, and are now stored online as one file in its original proprietary binary format.

The data for this product are available from 1 January 1979 through 30 December 1981. The principal investigators for the SAMS experiment were Prof. John T. Houghton and Dr. Fredric W. Taylor from Oxford University.

This product was previously available from the NSSDC with the identifier ESAD-00180 (old ID 78-098A-02C).