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
Equivalent Temperature warming vs. temperature warming Equivalent Temperature: HadISDH.land and ERA5

  • Years of Record

  • 1973-01 to 2024-01

Equivalent temperature is a measure of heat in the atmosphere that accounts for the latent heat stored in water vapor in addition to sensible heat as measured by…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Specific Humidity
Surface Flux and Meteorological Dataset: National Oceanography Centre (NOC) V2.0 Surface Flux and Meteorological Dataset: National Oceanography Centre (NOC) V2.0

  • Years of Record

  • 1973-01 to 2014-12

The National Oceanography Centre  (NOC) Version 2.0 Surface Flux and Meteorological Dataset is a monthly mean gridded dataset of marine surface measurements and…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Cloud Properties Evaporation Latent & sensible heat flux Multiple variables Radiation Sea Level Pressure Specific Humidity Surface Pressure Surface solar radiation Water Vapor Wind Ocean SST - sea surface temperature Surface Flux
Japanese Ocean Flux Data sets with Use of Remote Sensing Observations (J-OFURO2) Japanese Ocean Flux Data sets with Use of Remote Sensing Observations (J-OFURO2)

  • Years of Record

  • 1988-01 to 2006-12

These ocean surface flux data sets are derived primarily using data from multiple satellites. The COARE 3.0 bulk algorithm [Fairall et al. (2003)] is used in J-OFURO2 for…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Specific Humidity Wind Stress Latent & sensible heat flux Ocean Surface Flux

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
GPCP (Monthly): Global Precipitation Climatology Project GPCP (Monthly): Global Precipitation Climatology Project

  • Years of Record

  • 1979-01 to 2020-07

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 present. The…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Precipitation
HOAPS: Hamburg Ocean Atmosphere Parameters and Fluxes from Satellite Data HOAPS: Hamburg Ocean Atmosphere Parameters and Fluxes from Satellite Data

  • Years of Record

  • 1987-01 to 2008-12

The Hamburg Ocean Atmosphere Parameters and Fluxes from Satellite Data (HOAPS) set is a satellite-based climatology of precipitation, evaporation and freshwater budget (…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Evaporation Evaporation-Precipitation Precipitation Radiation Specific Humidity Wind Latent & sensible heat flux Precipitable water Ocean SST - sea surface temperature

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
ICOADS Surface Marine Weather Observations ICOADS Surface Marine Weather Observations

  • Years of Record

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
OAFlux: Objectively Analyzed air-sea Fluxes for the global oceans. OAFlux: Objectively Analyzed air-sea Fluxes for the global oceans.

  • Years of Record

  • 1958-01 to 2012-12

"The OAFlux project aims to provide consistent, multi-decade, global analysis of air-sea heat, freshwater (evaporation), and momentum fluxes for use in studies of global…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Latent & sensible heat flux Radiation Wind Ocean SST - sea surface temperature Surface Flux wind stress curl

    • Timestep

    • Daily, Monthly

    • Collections

    • N/A

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
ERA-Interim: derived components 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…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Budget Evaporation-Precipitation

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
COREv2 Air-Sea Surface Fluxes 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…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Evaporation Precipitation Radiation Wind Stress Land Runoff and Streamflow Ocean Surface Flux
Meridional Modes and their indices Meridional Modes and their indices

  • Years of Record

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

  • Years of Record

  • 1998-01 to 2019-12

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 tropical…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Precipitation
Global surface temperatures: BEST: Berkeley Earth Surface Temperatures Global surface temperatures: BEST: Berkeley Earth Surface Temperatures

  • Years of Record

  • 1701-01 to 2019-07

The Berkeley Earth Surface Temperatures (BEST) are a set of data products, originally a gridded reconstruction of land surface air temperature records spanning 1701-…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Maximum Air Temperature Minimum Air Temperature Ocean SST - sea surface temperature
GPPM logo decal, from NASA, https://gpm.nasa.gov/resources/images/gpm-decal IMERG precipitation algorithm and the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission

  • Years of Record

  • 2000-06 to 2023-07

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