This dataset and code is provided as required for publication within the journal Geoscientific Model Development (GMD). The data provided and code are used to train an example neural network and generate layerwise relevance propagation (LRP) heatmaps and an optimized input using the backward optimization technique. The user must modify the path to the data files within the .py script according to where they download the .nc files on their local machine. For additional comments and/or assistance, email ben.toms@colostate.edu.