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 Timeseries) contain monthly timeseries of precipitation, daily maximum and minimum temperatures,…

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 climate change detection and…

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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HadEX2 provides gridded, station-based indices of temperature- and precipitation- related climate extremes. It is intended for climate change detection and…

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…

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. …

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…

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…

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…

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. …

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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 (…

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 variables, at a horizontal resolution of 31 km and 137 vertical levels from…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere
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…

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…

Main variables and Earth System components

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

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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)…

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…

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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Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS) is a quasi-global (50S - 50N), land-only rainfall dataset with a range of temporal and…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Precipitation

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

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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…

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.…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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-…

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…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Cryosphere Land Soil Moisture

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    • Sub-daily, Monthly

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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…

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-…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Cloud Properties
CERES EBAF: Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy Systems (CERES) Energy Balanced and Filled (EBAF) CERES EBAF: Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy Systems (CERES) Energy Balanced and Filled (EBAF)

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The CERES-EBAF product provides 1-degree regional, zonal and global monthly mean Top-of-Atmosphere (TOA) and surface (SFC) longwave (LW), shortwave (SW), and net…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Cloud Properties Radiation
Precipitation Data Sets: Overview & Comparison table Precipitation Data Sets: Overview & Comparison table

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Precipitation (rain, snow, hail, ...) is one of the key components of the hydrological cycle. Its societal importance cannot be over stated. For climate research…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Precipitation

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Overview: Climate Indices Overview: Climate Indices

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A climate index is a simple diagnostic quantity that is used to characterize an aspect of a geophysical system such as a circulation pattern. A variety of…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Ocean

  • Experts contributing reviews

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Southern Oscillation Indices: Signal, Noise and Tahiti/Darwin SLP (SOI) Southern Oscillation Indices: Signal, Noise and Tahiti/Darwin SLP (SOI)

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The Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) is a time series used to characterize the large scale sea level pressure (SLP) patterns in the tropical Pacific. Monthly…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Sea Level Pressure
Station based DJFM NAO Index Hurrell North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) Index (station-based)

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The winter (December thru March) station-based index of the NAO is based on the difference of normalized sea level pressure (SLP) between Lisbon, Portugal and…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Sea Level Pressure
Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI)

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The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) is a widely used index to characterize meteorological drought on a range of timescales. On short timescales, the SPI…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Precipitation Land Drought

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    • Timestep

    • Monthly

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GPCP (Monthly): Global Precipitation Climatology Project GPCP (Monthly): Global Precipitation Climatology Project

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Data from rain gauge stations, satellites, and sounding observations have been merged to estimate monthly rainfall on a 2.5-degree global grid from 1979 to the…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Precipitation
NAM spatial pattern Hurrell wintertime SLP-based Northern Annular Mode (NAM) Index

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The NAM (or Arctic Oscillation) is defined as the first EOF of NH (20°-90°N) winter SLP data. It explains 23% of the extended winter mean (December-March)…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Sea Level Pressure
Overview: Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Data Sets Overview: Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Data Sets

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Directly measured and continuous records of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) extend back to 1958. CO2 has also been measured in ancient air samples trapped in…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere CO2 Biosphere

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North Pacific (NP) Index by Trenberth and Hurrell; monthly and winter North Pacific (NP) Index by Trenberth and Hurrell; monthly and winter

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The North Pacific Index (NP index or NPI) is the area-weighted sea level pressure over the region 30°N-65°N, 160°E-140°W. The NP index is defined to measure…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Sea Level Pressure
GPCC: Global Precipitation Climatology Centre GPCC: Global Precipitation Climatology Centre

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The GPCC provides gridded gauge-analysis products derived from quality controlled station data. Two products are for climate: (a) the Full Data Reanalysis…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Precipitation

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TRMM: Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission TRMM: Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission

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The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) is a joint space mission between NASA and Japan's National Space Development Agency designed to monitor and study…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Precipitation