AIRS (Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder): Version 6 Level 2
Years of Record: 2002/08 to 2016/09
AIRS Version 6 Level 2 data represent a significant improvement over AIRS Version 5 Level 2 products in terms of greater stability, yield, and quality. Several algorithmic improvements have been made by the AIRS Project in conjunction with the AIRS Science Team. Improvements include: (a)...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: HDF | HDF-EOS
Timestep: Sub-daily
Domain: Global
AIRS and AMSU: Trace Gases (CO2, CO, CH4, O3...); Level 3
AIRS provides satellite retrieval of mid-tropospheric carbon dioxide even under cloudy conditions, without the use of a priori information from models. AIRS retrievals use cloud-cleared thermal IR radiance spectra in the 15 micron band with an accuracy better than 2 ppm. AIRS retrievals have been...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF | HDF-EOS
Timestep: Sub-daily,Daily,Monthly
Domain: Global
Collections: Carbon cycle
AIRS and AMSU: Tropospheric air temperature and specific humidity
Years of Record: 2002/09 to 2011/05
The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) project has generated decadal-length,
global, gridded data sets of temperature and specific humidity for several standard
levels in the troposphere for the obs4MIPS project. This obs4MIPS version of the
AIRS data are available at monthly resolution, 1ºx1º...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF
Timestep: Monthly
Domain: Global
Collections: Obs4MIPS
Amundsen Sea Low indices
Years of Record: 1979/01 to 2015/07
The Amundsen Sea Low (ASL) is a climatological low pressure center located over the extreme southern Pacific Ocean, off the coast of West Antarctica. Atmospheric variability in this region is larger than anywhere else in the Southern Hemisphere, and exhibits significant correlations with both...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: ascii
Timestep: Monthly,Seasonal,Annual
Domain: Antarctic, SH - Southern Hemisphere, Southern Ocean
Antarctic Seasonal Pressure Reconstructions 1905-2013
Years of Record: 1905/01 to 2013/12
This dataset consists of seasonally resolved timeseries of surface pressure at 18 Antarctic research stations, spanning 1905-2013. Routine meteorological observations began at most of these stations only around 1960, leaving a very short instrumental record on which to assess Antarctic...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: ascii | Spreadsheet
Timestep: Seasonal
Domain: Antarctic
Arctic System Reanalysis (ASR)
Years of Record: 2000/01 to 2012/12
The Arctic System Reanalysis is a multi-agency, university-led retrospective analysis (reanalysis) of the Greater Arctic. ASR is produced using high-resolution versions of the Polar Weather Forecast Model (PWRF) and the WRF-VAR and High Resolution Land Data Assimilation (HRLDAS) data assimilation...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF
Timestep: Sub-daily,Monthly
Domain: Arctic
Argo Ocean Temperature and Salinity Profiles
Years of Record: 2000/01 to 2017/01
Argo is an array of over 3600 profiling floats distributed almost uniformly across the global oceans. First deployed in 2000, Argo floats provide temperature and salinity profiles from the surface to a depth of 2000m. The array has approximately 1 float for every 3 degrees of latitude and...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF
Timestep: Monthly,Weekly
Domain: Global
Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT)
Years of Record: 1995/01 to 2005/12
"The Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT) is a multidisciplinary programme which undertakes biological, chemical and physical oceanographic research during an annual voyage between the UK and destinations in the South Atlantic." As of early November, 2013, there have been 23 cruises. AMT data have...
Formats: ascii
Timestep: Sub-daily
Domain: Atlantic Ocean
Collections: Carbon cycle
Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO)
Years of Record: 1856/01 to 2016/07
The Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO) has been identified as a coherent mode of natural variability occurring in the North Atlantic Ocean with an estimated period of 60-80 years. It is based upon the average anomalies of sea surface temperatures (SST) in the North Atlantic basin, typically...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF | ascii
Timestep: Monthly
Domain: Atlantic Ocean, NH - Northern Hemisphere
AVISO: Satellite derived Sea Surface Height above Geoid
Years of Record: 1992/10 to 2010/12
The sea surface height relative to the geoid (the mean ocean surface of the Earth if the ocean is at rest) is derived from TOPEX/Poseidon, Envisat, Jason-1, and OSTM/Jason-2 altimetry measurements. Altimetry is a technique for measuring height. Satellite altimetry measures the time taken by a radar...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF
Timestep: Monthly
Domain: Global
Collections: Obs4MIPS
Budgets: Mass, Moisture, Energy
The uneven distribution of incoming and outgoing radiation is the primary driver of the climate system. The resulting flows of energy by the climate components (atmosphere, ocean, ice, etc) determine the climate. Ultimately, the net difference between incoming and outgoing radiation determines if...
Main variables and Earth System components:
CALIPSO
Years of Record: 2006/06 to 2017/01
CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations ) was launched on April 28, 2006 to study the impact of clouds and aerosols on the Earth's radiation budget and climate. It flies in formation with five other satellites in the international "A-Train" constellation for...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF
Timestep: Sub-daily,Daily
Domain: Global
Carbon Emissions from Historical Land-Use and Land-Use Change
Years of Record: 1800/01 to 2012/09
Annual net land-atmosphere carbon flux and net flux of carbon to the atmosphere due to land-use and land-use change (LULUC) are estimated using an integrated assessment model and three historical reconstructions of land use and land use conversion. The data span 1800-2010 and are aggregated for...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: binary
Timestep: Annual
Domain: Global
CARINA: Carbon in the North Altantic
Years of Record: 1978/01 to 2006/12
The CARINA (CARbon dioxide IN the Atlantic Ocean) data synthesis project is an international collaborative effort of the EU IP CARBOOCEAN, and US partners. It has produced a merged internally consistent data set of open ocean subsurface measurements for biogeochemical investigations, in particular...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: ascii
Timestep: Sub-daily
Domain: Arctic, Atlantic Ocean, Southern Ocean
Collections: Carbon cycle
CCMP: Cross-Calibrated Multi-Platform wind vector analysis
Years of Record: 1987/07 to 2016/05
The CCMP wind analysis is a near-global, high spatial and temporal resolution gridded dataset of surface wind vectors spanning 1987-present. The input data are a combination of inter-calibrated satellite data from numerous radiometers and scatterometers and in-situ data from moored buoys....
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF
Timestep: Sub-daily
Domain: Global
CERA-20C: ECMWF's Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Reanalysis of the 20th Century
Years of Record: 1901/01 to 2010/12
The CERA-20C is a global, coupled reanalysis spanning 1901-2010 with a focus on low-frequency climate variability. Similar to ERA-20C, the surface observations assimilated include surface pressures from the International Surface Pressure Databank v3.2.6 and ICOADS v 2.5.1, and surface winds...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF | GRIB
Timestep: Sub-daily,Daily,Monthly
Domain: Global
CERES: IGBP Land Classification
The International Geosphere–Biosphere Programme (IGBP) defines ecosystems surface classifications. The CERES (Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System)10-minute data can be used to derive the land categories. Other, finer resolution gridded surface data are available.
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF | binary
Timestep: Climatology
Domain: Global
CHELSA high-resolution land surface temperature and precipitation
Years of Record: 1979/01 to 2013/12
The Climatologies at high resolution for the Earth's land surface (CHELSA) dataset contains high spatial resolution monthly climatologies of mean, maximum and minimum temperatures and mean precipitation, representing the period 1979-2013. CHELSA is essentially a statistical downscaling of the...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: GeoTIFF
Timestep: Climatology
Domain: Global
CHOMPS: CICS High-Resolution Optimally Interpolated Microwave Precipitation from Satellites
Years of Record: 1998/01 to 2007/12
CHOMPS utilizes all available passive microwave satellite estimates to develop improved global daily rainfall time series. No IR values are used. Satellite sources include SSM/I, AMSU, AMSR-E and TRMM. The most recent/accurate and consistent retrieval schemes have been used in the creation of the...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: binary
Timestep: Daily
Domain: Global
Climate Data Records: Overview
As defined by a US National Research Council committee, a Climate Data Record (CDR) is "a time series of measurements of sufficient length, consistency and continuity to determine climate variability and change." In the US, agencies such as NASA and NOAA have sponsored operational and grant...
Collections: Climate Data Record
Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR)
Years of Record: 1979/01 to 2017/11
The CFSR is a third generation reanalysis product. It is a global, high resolution, coupled atmosphere-ocean-land surface-sea ice system designed to provide the best estimate of the state of these coupled domains over this period. The CFSR includes (1) coupling of atmosphere and ocean during the...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: GRIB
Timestep: Sub-daily,Monthly
Domain: Global
Cloud Dataset Overview
Clouds cover a significant portion of the earth's surface. They are important components of the cliimate's water and energy budgets. Historically, cloud reports have come from station or ship observations. This limited use of these observations for climate studies. However, since the satellite era...
Collections: Overview / Comparison page
Cloud observations from MODIS
Years of Record: 2000/03 to 2018/03
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is scanning instrument that makes measurements in 36 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared at spatial resolutions from 250 m to 1 km. There are MODIS instruments aboard two sun-synchronous polar-orbiting NASA satellites:...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF | HDF-EOS
Timestep: Daily,Monthly,Weekly
Domain: Global
Collections: Diagnostic Data Sets, NCAR-DOE-CESM, atmosdiagnostics, Obs4MIPS
CloudSat
Years of Record: 2006/06 to 2010/11
CloudSat is a satellite mission designed to measure the vertical structure of clouds from space. The radar data produces detailed images of cloud structures.
CloudSat is one of a constellation of satellites known as the A-Train (Cloudsat, CALIPSO, PARASOL, Aqua, Aura, GCOM-W1). The satellites fly...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF
Timestep: Monthly
Domain: Global
CMAP: CPC Merged Analysis of Precipitation
Years of Record: 1979/01 to 2018/05
CMAP refers to a collection of precipitation data sets, though the 2.5°x2.5° global monthly version is probably the most widely used. This data set is constructed from an analysis of gauge data and satellite-derived precipitation estimates. An "enhanced" version (CMAP/A) is also available, which...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF | ascii
Timestep: Monthly,Pentad
Domain: Global
Collections: Diagnostic Data Sets, NCAR-DOE-CESM, atmosdiagnostics
CMCC Global Ocean Reanalysis System (C-GLORS)
Years of Record: 1982/01 to 2013/12
"The CMCC Global Ocean Physical Reanalysis System (C-GLORS) is used to simulate the state of the ocean in the last decades. It consists of a variational data assimilation system (OceanVar), capable of assimilating all in-situ observations along with altimetry data, and a forecast step...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF
Timestep: Daily,Monthly,Weekly
Domain: Global
CMORPH (CPC MORPHing technique): High resolution precipitation (60S-60N)
Years of Record: 2002/12 to 2017/10
"CMORPH (CPC MORPHing technique) produces global precipitation analyses at very high spatial and temporal resolution. This technique uses precipitation estimates that have been derived from low orbiter satellite microwave observations exclusively, and whose features are transported via spatial...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF | binary
Timestep: Sub-daily,Daily
Domain: Global
COREv2 Air-Sea Surface Fluxes
Years of Record: 1949/01 to 2006/12
The Coordinated Ocean Research Experiments version 2 (COREv2) data set consists of a globally complete set of air-sea fluxes of momentum, heat and freshwater for 1948-2009 at monthly resolution. This data set serves as a set of common atmospheric boundary conditions that has been used...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF
Timestep: Monthly
Domain: Global
Collections: Diagnostic Data Sets, NCAR-DOE-CESM, atmosdiagnostics, oceandiagnostics
CoRTAD: Coral Reef Temperature Anomaly Database (SST)
Years of Record: 1985/01 to 2005/12
"The Coral Reef Temperature Anomaly Database (CoRTAD) is a collection of sea surface temperature (SST) and related thermal stress metrics, developed specifically for coral reef ecosystem applications but relevant to other ecosystems as well. In addition to SST, it contains SST anomaly (SSTA,...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF
Timestep: Weekly
Domain: Global
CPC Unified Gauge-Based Analysis of Global Daily Precipitation
Years of Record: 1948/01 to 2017/07
A gauge-based analysis of daily precipitation has been constructed over the global land areas. Gauge reports from over 30,000 stations are collected from multiple sources including GTS, COOP, and other national and international agencies. Quality control is performed through comparisons with...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: binary
Timestep: Daily
Domain: Global
CRU sc-PDSI (self-calibrating PDSI) over Europe & North America
Years of Record: 1901/01 to 2002/12
Maps of the monthly self-calibrating Palmer drought severity index (SCPDSI) have been calculated for the period 1901–2002 for the contiguous United States (20°–50°N and 130°–60°W) and Europe (35°–70°N, 10°W–60°E) with a spatial resolution of 0.5° × 0.5°
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: ascii
Timestep: Monthly
Domain: Europe, North America
CRU TS Gridded precipitation and other meteorological variables since 1901
Years of Record: 1901/01 to 2015/12
The CRU TS series of data sets (CRU TS = Climatic Research Unit Timeseries) contain monthly timeseries of precipitation, daily maximum and minimum temperatures, cloud cover, and other variables covering Earth's land areas for 1901-2015 (CRU TS4.0 is a recent release). The data set is gridded to 0....
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF | ascii
Timestep: Climatology,Monthly
Domain: Global
Daymet: Daily Surface Weather and Climatological Summaries
Years of Record: 1980/01 to 2015/12
Developed by Dr. Peter E Thornton to fulfill the need for daily climatological data necessary for plant growth model inputs, Daymet generates daily, gridded surfaces of temperature, precipitation, humidity, and radiation over large regions and takes into account areas of complex terrain.
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF | ascii
Timestep: Climatology,Daily
Domain: North America
Drought atlases from tree rings
Years of Record: 0000/01 to 2005/12
Tree-ring drought atlases provide a paleoclimate analog to modern drought indices, most commonly the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI). Produced on a regular lat-lon grid for regions such as North America, Europe, and Australia, these centuries-long datasets are convenient for comparisons...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF | ascii
Timestep: Annual
Domain: North America
ERA-15
Years of Record: 1979/01 to 1993/12
The ERA-15 production system generated re-analyses for 15 years (1979-1993) using a special version of their 1995 operational data assimilation system and model. The resulting analyses include full model resolution analyses or reduced resolution analyses and climate and statistics data...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: GRIB
Timestep: Sub-daily,Monthly
Domain: Global
Collections: Diagnostic Data Sets, NCAR-DOE-CESM, atmosdiagnostics
ERA-Interim
Years of Record: 1979/01 to 2018/04
Using a much improved atmospheric model and assimilation system from those used in ERA-40, ERA-Interim represents a third generation reanalysis. Several of the inaccuracies exhibited by ERA-40 such as too-strong precipitation over oceans from the early 1990's onwards and a too-strong Brewer-Dobson...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF | GRIB
Timestep: Sub-daily,Daily,Monthly
Domain: Global
Collections: Diagnostic Data Sets, NCAR-DOE-CESM, atmosdiagnostics
ERA-Interim: derived components
Years of Record: 1979/01 to 2015/12
Era-Interim data are used to derive monthly mass, moisture and energy budget products. Each term is available.
Atmospheric energy, mass, and moisture budgets can be computed by vertically integrating reanalysis fields and employing suitable corrections (e.g. mass). The budgets are uniquely...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF
Timestep: Monthly
Domain: Global
ERA40
Years of Record: 1957/09 to 2002/08
ERA 40 is a second generation reanalysis. It is the first reanalysis to directly assimilate satellite radiance data (TOVS, SSM/I, ERS and ATOVS). Cloud Motion Winds are also used. The result is better circulation over the tropics and southern hemisphere. However, unless comparing to previous...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF | GRIB
Timestep: Sub-daily,Monthly
Domain: Global
Collections: Diagnostic Data Sets, NCAR-DOE-CESM, atmosdiagnostics
FLASHFlux: Fast Longwave And Shortwave Radiative Fluxes
Years of Record: 2016/11 to 2018/06
FLASHFlux provides near real-time (7-8 days) quantification of surface radiative fluxes which are important for understanding the impact of changes to the Earth's surface and the atmospheric state on surface radiative fluxes.
An operational subsystem which uses a portion of the existing CERES...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: HDF
Timestep: Daily
Domain: Global
FLUXNET
"FLUXNET is a global network of micrometeorological flux measurement sites that measure the exchanges of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and energy between the biosphere and atmosphere. At present over 140 sites are operating on a long-term and continuous basis. Vegetation under study includes...
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: netCDF | ascii
Timestep: Sub-daily
Domain: Global
Collections: Carbon cycle, Diagnostic Data Sets, NCAR-DOE-CESM, landdiagnostics
FLUXNET: MTE (Multi-Tree Ensemble)
Years of Record: 1982/01 to 2007/12
Global, spatially and temporally explicit estimates of carbon and water fluxes derived from empirical up-scaling eddy covariance measurements would constitute a new and possibly powerful data stream to study the variability of the global terrestrial carbon and water cycle. Jung et al (2009)
Main variables and Earth System components:
Formats: binary
Timestep: Monthly
Domain: Global
Collections: Diagnostic Data Sets, NCAR-DOE-CESM, landdiagnostics
