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
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
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)

  • Years of Record

  • 1900-01 to 2011-01

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
NCAR Sea Level Pressure NCAR Sea Level Pressure

  • Years of Record

  • 1899-01 to 2022-01

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

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Multiple variables Cryosphere Sea Ice Concentration Ocean

    • Timestep

    • Sub-daily, Daily, Monthly

    • Collections

    • 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
WASWind: Wave and Anemometer-based Sea Surface Wind WASWind: Wave and Anemometer-based Sea Surface Wind

  • Years of Record

  • 1950-01 to 2011-12

"WASWind (Wave and Anemometer-based Sea Surface Wind) provides a bias-corrected marine surface wind dataset over the global oceans. Variables include scalar, zonal and…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Wind Wind Stress

    • Timestep

    • Monthly

    • Collections

    • N/A
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
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
Antarctic Seasonal Pressure Reconstructions 1905-2013 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…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Sea Level Pressure

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
Amundsen Sea Low indices Amundsen Sea Low indices

  • Years of Record

  • 1959-01 to 2022-12

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
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
NLDAS-2 Primary Forcing monthly average 2-m surface temperature for July 1980. NLDAS: North American Land Data Assimilation System

  • Years of Record

  • 1979-01 to 2023-08

The North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) integrates a large quantity of observation-based and model reanalysis data to produce long-term hourly atmospheric…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature CAPE Evaporation Precipitation Radiation Specific Humidity Surface Pressure Wind
Extended Edited Synoptic Cloud Reports Archive (EECRA) from Ships and Land Stations Over the Globe Extended Edited Synoptic Cloud Reports Archive (EECRA) from Ships and Land Stations Over the Globe

  • Years of Record

  • 1952-01 to 2008-12

"The Extended Edited Synoptic Cloud Reports Archive makes use of routine synoptic observations made by humans on ships over the ocean and at weather stations over land.…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Cloud Properties

    • Timestep

    • Sub-daily

    • Collections

    • N/A
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
ISCCP: International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project ISCCP: International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project

  • Years of Record

  • 1983-07 to 2009-12

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

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Cloud Properties
UK Met Office; contributed by Colin Raymond HadISD: Sub-daily, non-interpolated weather station data

  • Years of Record

  • 1931-01 to 2023-03

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

    • Timestep

    • Sub-daily

    • 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
NAO DJFM Station-based Index Hurrell North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) Index (station-based)

  • Years of Record

  • 1865-01 to 2023-06

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

  • Years of Record

  • 1957-01 to 2015-09

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
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
NAO PC-based Index (DJFM) Hurrell North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) Index (PC-based)

  • Years of Record

  • 1899-01 to 2025-03

The principal component (PC)-based indices of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) are the time series of the leading Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) of SLP anomalies…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Sea Level Pressure
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
Arctic System Reanalysis (ASR) 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…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Cryosphere Land Soil Moisture

    • Timestep

    • Sub-daily, Monthly

    • Collections

    • N/A

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
Cloud observations from MODIS Cloud observations from MODIS

  • Years of Record

  • 2000-03 to 2018-05

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is scanning instrument that makes measurements in 36 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared at…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Cloud Properties
Stratospheric Ozone: Vertically Resolved, zonal mean based on BDBP Stratospheric Ozone: Vertically Resolved, zonal mean based on BDBP

  • Years of Record

  • 1979-01 to 2007-12

Combined monthly mean vertical ozone profile database spanning the period 1979 to 2007. The database is completely filled such that there are no missing data. The raw…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Ozone: Stratospheric

    • Timestep

    • Monthly

    • Collections

    • N/A
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
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
Tropical Moored Buoy System: TAO, TRITON, PIRATA, RAMA (TOGA) Tropical Moored Buoy System: TAO, TRITON, PIRATA, RAMA (TOGA)

  • Years of Record

  • 1992-01 to 2013-04

The Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere program (TOGA) is a component of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) aimed specifically at the prediction of climate phenomena…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Precipitation Radiation Relative Humidity Sea Level Pressure Wind Ocean Absolute Dynamic Topography (ADT) Ocean Heat Content SST - sea surface temperature Salinity Sub Surface Salinity Sub Surface Temperature u, v current components

    • Timestep

    • Sub-daily, Daily, Monthly, Weekly

    • Collections

    • N/A

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
North Pacific Index timeseries North Pacific (NP) Index by Trenberth and Hurrell; monthly and winter

  • Years of Record

  • 1899-01 to 2025-08

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 interannual to…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Sea Level Pressure
HadISDH Long Term Trends in Relative Humidity (1973-2023) Global near-surface humidity data: HadISDH

  • Years of Record

  • 1973-01 to 2023-12

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
NOAA 20th-Century Reanalysis, Version 2 and 2c NOAA 20th-Century Reanalysis, Version 2 and 2c

  • Years of Record

  • 1850-12 to 2014-12

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

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
Overview: Climate Indices Overview: Climate Indices

  • Years of Record

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 methods have been…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Ocean

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A