ERA-Interim: derived components

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ERA-Interim: derived components
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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 computed by vertically integrating reanalysis fields and employing suitable corrections (e.g. mass). The budgets are uniquely valuable for interpreting the climate's mean state and its variability. They can also be used in conjunction with complementary data (i.e. top of atmosphere fluxes) to diagnose the surface energy budget and over large scales these estimates can rival or surpass other methods for doing so.

The total atmospheric energy budget consists of the combined dry static energy (Cp•T+g•Z), latent energy (Lv•Q), and kinetic energy terms, the tendency and divergence of which can be explicitly computed. These fields are available individually, or in sum as total energy divergence (TEDIV) and total energy tendency (TETEN). All budget fields are computed on monthly timescales on the native model grid.

Terms available and their definition:

TEDIV = DSEDIV + LEDIV + KEDIV

TEDIV = del•(Cp•UT+ g•UZ+L•UQ+ UK, Cp•VT+ g•VZ+L•VQ+ VK)

DSEDIV = del•(Cp•UT+ g•UZ, Cp•VT+ g•VZ)

LEDIV = del•(L•UQ, L•VQ)

KEDIV = del•(UK, VK)

Please cite data sources, following the data providers' instructions
Dataset DOIs
None
Hosted Climate Index Files
None
Usage Restrictions
None

Cite this page

Acknowledgement of any material taken from or knowledge gained from this page is appreciated:

National Center for Atmospheric Research Staff (Eds). Last modified "The Climate Data Guide: ERA-Interim: derived components.” Retrieved from https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu/climate-data/era-interim-derived-components on 2024-03-29.


Citation of datasets is separate and should be done according to the data providers' instructions. If known to us, data citation instructions are given in the Data Access section, above.


Acknowledgement of the Climate Data Guide project is also appreciated:

Schneider, D. P., C. Deser, J. Fasullo, and K. E. Trenberth, 2013: Climate Data Guide Spurs Discovery and Understanding. Eos Trans. AGU, 94, 121–122, https://doi.org/10.1002/2013eo130001

Key Figures

ERA Interim: annual mean of evaporation minus precipitation. (Climate Data Guide: J.Fasullo)

ERA Interim: Total energy tendency: (a) Jan 1998 (top); (b) 1979-2012 January climatology; (c) January 1998 anomaly. (Climate Data Guide: D. Shea)

ERA Interim: Mass corrected vertically integrated meridional temperature: (a) Jan 1998 (top); (b) 1979-2012 January climatology; (c) January 1998 anomaly. (Climate Data Guide: D. Shea)

Other Information

Earth system components and main variables

Years of record
to
Data time period extended
Yes, data set is extended
Timestep
Monthly
Domain
Formats:
Input Data
None
Vertical Levels:
Missing Data Flag
Spatially complete
Ocean or Land
Ocean & Land
Spatial Resolution

256x512 (~0.7x0.7)

Model Resolution (reanalysis)
None
Data Assimilation Method
None
Model Vintage (reanalysis)
None