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
AIRS and AMSU: Tropospheric air temperature and specific humidity 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…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Specific Humidity
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
GHCN-D: Global Historical climatology Network daily temperatures GHCN-D: Global Historical climatology Network daily temperatures

  • Years of Record

  • 1880-01 to 2023-09

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

    • Timestep

    • Daily

    • Collections

    • N/A
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
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)

  • Years of Record

  • 1901-01 to 2018-12

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
PRISM High-Resolution Spatial Climate Data for the United States: Max/min temp, dewpoint, precipitation PRISM High-Resolution Spatial Climate Data for the United States: Max/min temp, dewpoint, precipitation

  • Years of Record

  • 1895-01 to 2023-04

PRISM is a set of monthly, yearly, and single-event gridded data products of mean temperature and precipitation, max/min temperatures, and dewpoints, primarily for the…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Dew Point Temperature Maximum Air Temperature Minimum Air Temperature Precipitation
U.S. Climate Extremes Index (CEI) U.S. Climate Extremes Index (CEI)

  • Years of Record

  • 1910-01 to 2019-11

The U.S. Climate Extremes Index (CEI) was first presented in 1995 as a framework for quantifying observed changes in climate within the contiguous United States. At…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Maximum Air Temperature Minimum Air Temperature Precipitation Wind Land Drought
map of Tmin over eastern US (credit: Michelle Thornton) Daymet: Daily Surface Weather and Climatological Summaries

  • Years of Record

  • 1980-01 to 2023-07

Daymet provides long-term, continuous, gridded estimates of daily weather and climatology variables by interpolating and extrapolating ground-based observations through…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Maximum Air Temperature Minimum Air Temperature Precipitation Radiation Water Vapor Cryosphere Snow Water Equivalent
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

  • Years of Record

  • 1950-01 to 2019-07

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…

Main variables and Earth System components

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

    • Timestep

    • Daily

    • Collections

    • N/A
CHELSA high-resolution land surface temperature and precipitation 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…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Precipitation

    • Timestep

    • Climatology, Monthly

    • Collections

    • N/A
TerraClimate: Global, high-resolution gridded temperature, precipitation, and other water balance variables TerraClimate: Global, high-resolution gridded temperature, precipitation, and other water balance variables

  • Years of Record

  • 1958-01 to 2018-12

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

    • Timestep

    • Climatology, Monthly

    • Collections

    • N/A
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

  • Years of Record

  • 1950-01 to 2013-12

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
HadGHCNDEX - Gridded Daily Temperature Extremes HadGHCNDEX - Gridded Daily Temperature Extremes

  • Years of Record

  • 1950-01 to 2011-12

HadGHCND (aka HadGHCNDEX) is a gridded daily dataset of near-surface maximum (TX) and minimum (TN) temperature observations. Anomalies (departures from 1961-1990…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Maximum Air Temperature Minimum Air Temperature

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
HadEX2: Gridded Temperature and Precipitation Climate Extremes Indices (CLIMDEX data) HadEX2: Gridded Temperature and Precipitation Climate Extremes Indices (CLIMDEX data)

  • Years of Record

  • 1901-01 to 2010-12

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

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
GHCNDEX: Gridded Temperature and Precipitation Climate Extremes Indices (CLIMDEX data) GHCNDEX: Gridded Temperature and Precipitation Climate Extremes Indices (CLIMDEX data)

  • Years of Record

  • 1951-01 to 2014-02

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

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
Cloud Dataset Overview Cloud Dataset Overview

  • Years of Record

  • 1982-01 to 2009-12

Clouds cover about 70% of the earth's surface. They are important components of the cliimate's water and energy budgets. Historically, cloud reports have come from station…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Cloud Properties
CRU TS Gridded precipitation and other meteorological variables since 1901 CRU TS Gridded precipitation and other meteorological variables since 1901

  • Years of Record

  • 1901-01 to 2022-12

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

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
NOAA ThreadEx Long-term Station Extremes for America NOAA ThreadEx Long-term Station Extremes for America

  • Years of Record

  • 1870-01 to 2011-12

ThreadEx is a data set of extreme daily temperature and precipitation values for 270 locations in the United States. For each day of the year at each station, ThreadEx…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Maximum Air Temperature Minimum Air Temperature Precipitation

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
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
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

  • Years of Record

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
NASA's MERRA2 reanalysis NASA's MERRA2 reanalysis

  • Years of Record

  • 1980-01 to 2017-11

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

    • Timestep

    • Sub-daily, Daily, Monthly

    • Collections

    • N/A
GNSS/ERA TCWV 2023 Total Column Water Vapor: Integrated Water Vapor from GNSS stations

  • Years of Record

  • 1994-01 to 2024-12

Total Column Water Vapor (TCWV) or Integrated Water Vapor (IWV) is a key measure of the quantity of moisture held in the atmosphere at given locations. Water vapor is a key…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Water Vapor

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A