Atmosphere

Atmospheric variables include temperature, precipitation, wind, pressure, clouds, greenhouse gases, and much more. Overview pages summarize and compare selected datasets of a given variable.

To find a specific dataset or variable, jump to the search box below or click your desired variable from among the blue sub-category buttons. Note that the classification of datasets by variable is approximate, especially for large, multi-variable datasets like reanalyses.

To see only the datasets accompanied by in-depth commentary, select the "Datasets with guidance" button when using the search box.

Climate datasets

Has expert guidance
CRU TS Gridded precipitation and other meteorological variables since 1901 CRU TS Gridded precipitation and other meteorological variables since 1901

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The CRU TS series of data sets (CRU TS = Climatic Research Unit Time series) contain gridded monthly fields of precipitation, daily maximum and minimum temperatures, cloud…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Cloud Properties Maximum Air Temperature Minimum Air Temperature Potential Evapotranspiration Precipitation

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GHCNDEX: Gridded Temperature and Precipitation Climate Extremes Indices (CLIMDEX data) GHCNDEX: Gridded Temperature and Precipitation Climate Extremes Indices (CLIMDEX data)

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GHCNDEX provides gridded, station-based indices of temperature- and precipitation- related climate extremes. It is intended for detection and attribution studies, climate…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Maximum Air Temperature Minimum Air Temperature Land Freeze/Thaw

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HadEX2: Gridded Temperature and Precipitation Climate Extremes Indices (CLIMDEX data) HadEX2: Gridded Temperature and Precipitation Climate Extremes Indices (CLIMDEX data)

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Note: HadEX2 has been superseded by HadEX3. HadEX2 provides gridded, station-based indices of temperature- and precipitation- related climate extremes. It is intended for…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Maximum Air Temperature Minimum Air Temperature Land Freeze/Thaw

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Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR): HIRS Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR): HIRS

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"The new Climate Data Record (CDR) provides daily global climate data that are valuable as inputs into Radiation Budget Studies and verifying numerical models and can…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Outgoing Longwave Radiation

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ERA-20C: ECMWF's atmospheric reanalysis of the 20th century (and comparisons with NOAA's 20CR) ERA-20C: ECMWF's atmospheric reanalysis of the 20th century (and comparisons with NOAA's 20CR)

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The ECMWF's first atmospheric reanalysis of the 20th Century, ERA-20C, provides a long, gridded dataset of many climate variables, spanning 1900-2010.  Observations…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Multiple variables
Surface Solar Radiation Data Set - Heliosat (SARAH) -Edition 1 Surface Solar Radiation Data Set - Heliosat (SARAH) -Edition 1

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"The Surface Solar Radiation Data Set - Heliosat (SARAH) is a satellite-based climatology of the solar surface irradiance (SIS), the surface direct normalized irradiance (…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Cloud albedo

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GPPM logo decal, from NASA, https://gpm.nasa.gov/resources/images/gpm-decal IMERG precipitation algorithm and the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission

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IMERG (Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for the Global Precipitation Measurement) is NASA's updated precipitation algorithm, while the Global Precipitation Measurement…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Precipitation
Marshall Southern Annular Mode (SAM) Index (Station-based) Marshall Southern Annular Mode (SAM) Index (Station-based)

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The station-based index of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) is based on the zonal pressure difference between the latitudes of 40S and 65S.  As such, the SAM index…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Sea Level Pressure
Amundsen Sea Low indices Amundsen Sea Low indices

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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…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Sea Level Pressure
GHCN-D: Global Historical climatology Network daily temperatures GHCN-D: Global Historical climatology Network daily temperatures

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The Global Historical Climatology Network Daily database, GHCN-D, contains meteorological measurements from over 90,000 stations across the globe.  The majority of…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Maximum Air Temperature Minimum Air Temperature Precipitation

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    • Daily

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Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) datasets: An overview Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) datasets: An overview

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The solar radiation arriving at Earth (once known as the “solar constant”, now usually referred to as Total Solar Irradiance (TSI)), is the most fundamental of climate…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere solar irradiance

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CCMP: Cross-Calibrated Multi-Platform wind vector analysis CCMP: Cross-Calibrated Multi-Platform wind vector analysis

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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…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Wind

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    • Sub-daily

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Antarctic Seasonal Pressure Reconstructions 1905-2013 Antarctic Seasonal Pressure Reconstructions 1905-2013

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This dataset consists of seasonally resolved timeseries of surface pressure at 18 Antarctic research stations, spanning 1905-2013.  Routine meteorological observations…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Sea Level Pressure

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CERA-20C: ECMWF's Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Reanalysis of the 20th Century CERA-20C: ECMWF's Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Reanalysis of the 20th Century

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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…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Multiple variables Cryosphere Sea Ice Concentration Ocean

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    • Sub-daily, Daily, Monthly

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CHELSA high-resolution land surface temperature and precipitation CHELSA high-resolution land surface temperature and precipitation

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The Climatologies at high resolution for the Earth's land surface (CHELSA) dataset contains high spatial resolution monthly climatologies of mean, maximum and minimum…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Precipitation

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    • Climatology, Monthly

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NASA's MERRA2 reanalysis NASA's MERRA2 reanalysis

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The Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2) is a global atmospheric reanalysis produced by the NASA Global Modeling and…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Aerosols Air Temperature Geopotential Height Precipitable water

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    • Sub-daily, Daily, Monthly

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Southern Hemisphere westerly jet strength and position Southern Hemisphere westerly jet strength and position

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The dynamics of the Southern Hemisphere westerly jet are described in terms of two indices, jet strength and jet latitude.  Here, these indices are defined using the…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Wind
E-OBS: High-resolution gridded mean/max/min temperature, precipitation and sea level pressure for Europe & Northern Africa E-OBS: High-resolution gridded mean/max/min temperature, precipitation and sea level pressure for Europe & Northern Africa

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E-OBS is a high spatial resolution daily gridded data that covers the European region and is based on the station data collated by the ECA&D initiative (Klein Tank et al…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Maximum Air Temperature Minimum Air Temperature Precipitation Sea Level Pressure

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    • Daily

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ERA5 atmospheric reanalysis ERA5 atmospheric reanalysis

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ERA5, the successor to ERA-Interim, provides global, hourly estimates of atmospheric, ocean-wave and land-surface variables, at a horizontal resolution of 31 km and 137…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Land Ocean wave height
Livneh gridded precipitation and other meteorological variables for continental US, Mexico and southern Canada Livneh gridded precipitation and other meteorological variables for continental US, Mexico and southern Canada

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The Livneh et al. (2015) hydrometeorological dataset consists of gridded daily and monthly precipitation, maximum and minimum air temperature, and wind speed for the…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Maximum Air Temperature Minimum Air Temperature Precipitation Wind
TerraClimate: Global, high-resolution gridded temperature, precipitation, and other water balance variables TerraClimate: Global, high-resolution gridded temperature, precipitation, and other water balance variables

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TerraClimate is a global gridded dataset of meteorological and water balance variables for 1958-present, available on a monthly timestep. Its relatively fine spatial…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Maximum Air Temperature Minimum Air Temperature Potential Evapotranspiration Precipitation Wind Snow Water Equivalent Land evapotranspiration Runoff and Streamflow Soil Moisture

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    • Climatology, Monthly

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Meridional Modes and their indices Meridional Modes and their indices

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In each of the world’s tropical ocean basins, year-to-year climate variability is primarily governed by fluctuations in the zonal sea surface temperature (SST) gradient and…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Wind Ocean SST - sea surface temperature
Global land-ocean surface temperature data: HadCRUT5 Global land-ocean surface temperature data: HadCRUT5

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HadCRUT5 is one of the main datasets used to monitor global and regional surface temperature variability and trends. It is a global surface temperature product that combines…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature at 2m Ocean SST - sea surface temperature
Map of May 2014 precipitation totals according to CHIRPSv2. Provided by C. Martinez. CHIRPS: Climate Hazards InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (version 2)

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Note: CHIRPS v2 has been superseded by CHIRPS v3 as of June 2025. Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS) is a quasi-global (50S - 50N), land…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Precipitation

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    • Climatology, Sub-daily, Daily, Monthly, Seasonal, Pentad

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X-ray image illustrating the annual density bands in corals. (Image credit: USGS via Allison Lawman)) Coral geochemical records: An overview of their use as climate proxies and of available databases

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Coral records are one of the main types of high-resolution (annual to sub-annual) paleoclimate proxies, providing timeseries of environmental conditions reaching hundreds to…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Evaporation Evaporation-Precipitation Precipitation Ocean Salinity SST - sea surface temperature
A team on a boat coring lakes in the Arctic (credit: Laura Larocca) An overview of paleoclimate information from high-resolution lake sediment records: Strengths, limitations and key databases

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Accumulated sediments at the bottom of lakes are invaluable archives of past climate and environmental change. These sediments contain a variety of physical, geochemical,…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Precipitation Biosphere Pollen Land
temporal correlations between 3-day mean rain gauge- and MSWEP-based time series. Each data point represents a rain gauge. Figure from Beck et al. (2017). Global high-resolution precipitation: MSWEP

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Multi-Source Weighted-Ensemble Precipitation (MSWEP) is a sub-daily precipitation dataset with full global coverage at 0.1° resolution, spanning the period 1979 to…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Precipitation

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    • Sub-daily

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timeseries of global-mean methane from NOAA (https://gml.noaa.gov/webdata/ccgg/trends/ch4_trend_all_gl.png) Global-mean methane at the Earth's surface from NOAA’s global cooperative greenhouse gas measurements

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NOAA’s Global Monitory Laboratory has measured atmospheric methane levels since 1983 at a global cooperative greenhouse gases sampling network, which currently includes more…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere CH4 (methane)
FWI p95 in ERAI and CESM1-LE (contributed by Danielle Touma) Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI)

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Fire weather indices are used to quantify the meteorological conditions that can lead to fire ignition and spread. They are used to communicate fire danger levels to…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere

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Map of linear trend in R99p https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadex3/images/HadEX3_R99p_1901-2018_ADW_61-90_1.25x1.875deg_Ann_trend.png HadEX3: Gridded Temperature and Precipitation Climate Extremes Indices (CLIMDEX data)

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HadEX3 provides gridded, station-based indices of temperature- and precipitation- related climate extremes and supersedes HadEX2. It is intended for global and continental…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature at 2m Maximum Air Temperature Minimum Air Temperature Land Freeze/Thaw
UK Met Office; contributed by Colin Raymond HadISD: Sub-daily, non-interpolated weather station data

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HadISD ("Hadley Centre Integrated Surface Database") is a compendium of subdaily weather-station data developed by the UK Met Office that is based on NOAA NCEI's Integrated…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature at 2m Dew Point Temperature Precipitation Sea Level Pressure Storm data Wind

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    • Sub-daily

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Post-boost climatology of lightning from TRMM LIS (September 2001 through December 2014). Taken from Blakeslee et al. (2020). (credit: Dennis Buechler) Lightning data from the TRMM and ISS Lightning Image Sounder (LIS): Towards a global lightning Climate Data Record

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The Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) is an optically based spaceborne lightning detection instrument that has been hosted on two different platforms – the Tropical Rainfall…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Lightning
Figure 2: Map of the locations for all available IGRA v2.2 stations. Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA)

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The largest publicly available collection of quality-controlled, globally-distributed, historical radiosonde and pilot balloon observations is the Integrated Global…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Dew Point Temperature Geopotential Height Multiple variables Relative Humidity Wind

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    • Sub-daily

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DCENT warming level image Global surface temperature data: The Dynamically Consistent ENsemble of Temperature (DCENT)

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The Dynamically Consistent ENsemble of Temperature (DCENT) provides monthly, global, gridded, surface temperature anomalies since 1850. This product provides combined land…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature at 2m Ocean SST - sea surface temperature

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    • Monthly

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HadCRUT5_MLE annual mean global temperature anomaly Global surface temperature: Maximum Likelihood Estimates of Temperatures using HadCRUT5 (Version 1.2)

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The Maximum Likelihood Estimates of Temperatures using HadCRUT5 Version 1.2 (HadCRU_MLE_v1.2) dataset provides global complete surface temperature estimates since 1850, with…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature at 2m Ocean SST - sea surface temperature
HadISDH Long Term Trends in Relative Humidity (1973-2023) Global near-surface humidity data: HadISDH

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HadISDH (Met Office Hadley Centre International Surface Dataset of Humidity) is a gridded 5°x5° monthly mean product beginning in January 1973, and updated annually. It…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature at 2m Relative Humidity Specific Humidity
Water Isotopes from Satellites Water Isotopes from Satellites

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Summary of 7 satellite-derived products providing a global snapshot of water isotope distribution in 3D, with good information on zonal gradients and seasonality…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Water Isotopes
NCAR Sea Level Pressure NCAR Sea Level Pressure

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NCAR Sea Level Pressure is a gridded analysis of SLP based on land station reports, covering 1899 to present for latitudes 30°N-90°N. Quality controlled raw data plus…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Sea Level Pressure
ICOADS Surface Marine Weather Observations ICOADS Surface Marine Weather Observations

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ICOADS (International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set) is the most comprehensive archive of global marine surface climate observations available. Variables include…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Budget Cloud Properties Latent & sensible heat flux Sea Level Pressure Specific Humidity Wind Ocean SST - sea surface temperature
Atmospheric Reanalysis: Overview & Comparison Tables Atmospheric Reanalysis: Overview & Comparison Tables

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Reanalysis a systematic approach to produce data sets for climate monitoring and research. Reanalyses are created via an unchanging ("frozen") data assimilation scheme and…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere
NCEP-NCAR (R1): An Overview NCEP-NCAR (R1): An Overview

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NCEP-NCAR (R1) is the original reanalysis effort. It uses a frozen global state-of-the-art global data assimilation system (as of 11 January 1995). The original database was…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Geopotential Height

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Simplistic Overview of Reanalysis Data Assimilation Methods Simplistic Overview of Reanalysis Data Assimilation Methods

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Data assimilation is the process of combining observations from a wide variety of sources and forecast output from a weather prediction model. The resulting analysis is…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere

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NASA MERRA NASA MERRA

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The Modern Era Retrospective-Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) was undertaken by NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office with two primary objectives: to…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Geopotential Height Precipitable water Water Vapor

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JRA-55 JRA-55

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Spanning 1958-present, JRA-55 is the longest third-generation reanalysis that uses the full observing system (in contrast, products like ERA-20C and NOAA 20CR assimilate a…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Geopotential Height Precipitable water

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    • Sub-daily, Monthly

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ERA-Interim ERA-Interim

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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…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Geopotential Height Precipitable water Precipitation
NOAA 20th-Century Reanalysis, Version 2 and 2c NOAA 20th-Century Reanalysis, Version 2 and 2c

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The Twentieth Century Reanalysis (20CR) provides a comprehensive global atmospheric circulation data set spanning 1850-2014. Its chief motivation is to provide an…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Geopotential Height

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NCEP NARR NCEP NARR

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A high resolution (32km x 29 pressure levels) data set focused upon the North American Region. Relative to the NCEP-DOE (R2) it has a much improved land-hydrology, diurnal…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Geopotential Height Precipitable water Land

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    • Climatology, Sub-daily, Monthly

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Arctic System Reanalysis (ASR) Arctic System Reanalysis (ASR)

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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…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Cryosphere Land Soil Moisture

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    • Sub-daily, Monthly

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  • Experts contributing reviews

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Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR)

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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…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Geopotential Height Precipitable water Ocean

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ISCCP: International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project ISCCP: International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project

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The International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) makes use of routine observations by operational weather satellites to provide a long-term (1983-2009), gridded…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Cloud Properties