Climate Data

The Climate Data Guide is a high-traffic expert knowledge portal providing concise and reliable information on the data that are essential for monitoring and understanding the Earth System. Currently, it curates expert insights on over 200 observational datasets and indices, searchable or browseable in the list below.

To find a specific dataset or climate variable, jump to the the search box. For only the datasets paired with guidance written by experts, select the "Datasets with guidance" button when using the search box.

Data creators, data publishers, and scientists who use climate data are invited to join our Network of Experts by contributing commentaries on data strengths and limitations to the Climate Data Guide. What type of data are included? See this discussion.

With the exception of about 25 climate indices, the Climate Data Guide does not host datasets.  Data cannot be downloaded from this site. However, links are provided to download locations under the "Data Access" section of each dataset page.


Citation: Please link to this website in your work that draws upon material from this website, and cite this paper:

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

=> Additionally, each dataset page with expert-written guidance has its own citation example on the individual page, such that the experts who wrote the guidance may be credited. Finally, responsible use and citation of datasets is strongly encouraged.


Climate datasets

Has expert guidance
EN4 subsurface temperature and salinity for the global oceans EN4 subsurface temperature and salinity for the global oceans
  • Years of record

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EN4 is a subsurface temperature and salinity dataset for the global oceans, spanning 1900 to present at a monthly timestep. It includes two types of data products: (1) a database of quality-controled in situ profiles and (2) a spatially complete analyses at 1 by 1 degree…

    • Timestep

    • Monthly
    • Collections

    • None
QuikSCAT: near sea-surface wind speed and direction QuikSCAT: near sea-surface wind speed and direction
  • Years of record

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The QuikSCAT mission was intended to obtain sea-surface wind speed and direction data under all weather and cloud conditions over Earth's oceans. SeaWinds, an active radar scatterometer, is the main instrument on the QuikSCAT satellite. The microwave backscatter measured…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Wind
Sea Ice Concentration data: Overview, Comparison table and graphs Sea Ice Concentration data: Overview, Comparison table and graphs
  • Years of record

Sea ice concentration is both an indicator and driver of changes high-latitude climate with strong societal and ecological importance. It is a key boundary condition for atmospheric models (including those used in atmospheric reanalyses) and a benchmark for coupled climate…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Sea Ice Concentration Ocean
  • Experts contributing reviews

  • None
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

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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.  Observations assimilated include surface pressures from the International Surface Pressure Databank v3.2.6 and…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Multiple variables
Asymmetry and Diversity in the pattern, amplitude and duration of El Niño and La Niña Asymmetry and Diversity in the pattern, amplitude and duration of El Niño and La Niña
  • Years of record

El Niño and La Niña, the two phases of ENSO, are sometimes described as opposites. However, there are asymmetries in their spatial structure, amplitude, duration and seasonal evolution. This leads to differing teleconnections and global impacts, as well as implications for…

Main variables and Earth System components

Ocean SST - sea surface temperature
    • Formats

    • Timestep

    • Collections

    • None
GRACE: Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment: Surface mass, total water storage, and derived variables GRACE: Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment: Surface mass, total water storage, and derived variables
  • Years of record

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The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) refers to a pair of NASA satellites that has flown in low-Earth orbit since 2002. The satellites use a precise microwave ranging system to measure the distance between themselves due to gravitational acceleration. Onboard…

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

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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 the continental US, southern Canada, and Mexico for the period 1950-2013. Gridded at 1/16° horizontal…

Main variables and Earth System components

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

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Daymet provides long-term, continuous, gridded estimates of daily weather and climatology variables by interpolating and extrapolating ground-based observations through statistical modeling techniques. The Daymet data products provide driver data for biogeochemical…

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)
  • Years of record

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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 (NET) fluxes under clear and all-sky conditions. EBAF is used for climate model evaluation, estimating the…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Cloud Properties Radiation
Figure 2: Map of the locations for all available IGRA v2.2 stations. Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA)
  • Years of record

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The largest publicly available collection of quality-controlled, globally-distributed, historical radiosonde and pilot balloon observations is the Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA; Durre et al. 2006, 2018). First released in 2004, IGRA is maintained and…

    • Timestep

    • Sub-daily
    • Collections

    • None
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

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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 (Klein Tank et al., 2002). These data are supplied by many European National Meteorological Services and other data…

    • Timestep

    • Daily
    • Collections

    • None
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 zonal surface winds. These variations consist of recognizable climate modes, such as the El Niño-…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Wind Ocean SST - sea surface temperature
contribution from each of the different evaporation components in GLEAM for 1980-2022 (contributed by A Koppa and D Miralles) Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM)
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The Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM) is a satellite remote sensing-based set of algorithms dedicated to the estimation of evaporation and soil moisture at global scales (Miralles et al. 2011). The current version of GLEAM (version 3) operates at a daily time…

Main variables and Earth System components

Biosphere land evaporation Land evapotranspiration Soil Moisture
    • Formats

    • Timestep

    • Daily
    • Collections

    • None
NASA MERRA NASA MERRA
  • Years of record

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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 objectives: to place observations from NASA’s Earth Observing System satellites into a climate context and to…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Geopotential Height Precipitable water Water Vapor
  • Experts contributing reviews

  • None
X-ray image illustrating the annual density bands in corals.  (Image credit: USGS via Allison Lawman)) Coral geochemical records: An overview of their use as climate proxies and of available databases
  • Years of record

Coral records are one of the main types of high-resolution (annual to sub-annual) paleoclimate proxies, providing timeseries of environmental conditions reaching hundreds to thousands of years into the past in the tropics, the central driver of the global atmospheric…

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, and biological proxy indicators that can be used to gain a multi-faceted understanding of past…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Precipitation Biosphere Pollen Land
Argo Ocean Temperature and Salinity Profiles Argo Ocean Temperature and Salinity Profiles
  • Years of record

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Argo is an array of over 3600 profiling floats distributed almost uniformly across the global oceans. First deployed in 2000, Argo floats provide temperature and salinity profiles from the surface to a depth of 2000m. The array has approximately 1 float for every…

Main variables and Earth System components

Ocean Salinity Sub Surface Salinity Sub Surface Temperature
    • Timestep

    • Monthly, Weekly
    • Collections

    • None
Daily Arctic sea ice volume from PIOMAS for each year from January 1, 1979 to November 30, 2022 using shades of blue to red in sequential order for every line. The decadal averages are annotated on the right side. (contributed by Z. Labe) Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS)
  • Years of record

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The Pan-Arctic Ice-Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS) is a reanalysis data set that uses a coupled ice and ocean model to provide daily and monthly estimates of Arctic sea-ice thickness. The data is publicly available from January 1979 to in near-real time.…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Sea Ice Thickness Ocean
SST data: HadSST4 SST data: HadSST4
  • Years of record

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HadSST4 provides monthly SST anomalies on a 5°x5° grid for 1850-present. The anomalies are derived from a 30-year climatology spanning 1961-90. Coverage is global but there is no interpolation; Thus, missing data occur in the final product. This means that uncertainties…

Main variables and Earth System components

Ocean SST - sea surface temperature
Global Permafrost Zonation Index Map Global Permafrost Zonation Index Map
  • Years of record

This data set contains a global (excluding Antarctica) 1 km map of permafrost zonation. It is an estimate of to what degree permafrost exists in a region nearly everywhere, or only in the most favorable conditions. These local conditions affecting permafrost occurrence…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Permafrost Land
Southern Ocean State Estimate (SOSE) Southern Ocean State Estimate (SOSE)
  • Years of record

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The Southern Ocean State Estimate (SOSE) is a model-generated best fit to Southern Ocean observations.  As such, it provides a quantitatively useful climatology of the mean-state of the Southern Ocean.  Technically, SOSE is a solution to the MITgcm.  SOSE is…

SST data: NOAA Extended Reconstruction SSTs, version 3 (ERSSTv3 & 3b) SST data: NOAA Extended Reconstruction SSTs, version 3 (ERSSTv3 & 3b)
  • Years of record

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The NOAA Extended Reconstruction Sea Surface Temperature (ERSST) provides global, spatially complete SST data at a monthly timestep for 1854-present. Version3 is based upon statistical interpolation of the ICOADS release 2.4 data. Version 3 includes satellite AVHRR SST…

Main variables and Earth System components

Ocean SST - sea surface temperature
Radiative kernels from climate models Radiative kernels from climate models
  • Years of record

The radiative kernel technique is a method used to quantify radiative feedbacks in response to global warming.  Radiative kernels are commonly calculated for the water vapor, lapse rate, temperature and albedo feedbacks.  Radiative kernels are used to deconstruct…

Main variables and Earth System components

    • Timestep

    • Climatology
    • Collections

    • None
CMCC Global Ocean Reanalysis System (C-GLORS) CMCC Global Ocean Reanalysis System (C-GLORS)
  • Years of record

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"The CMCC Global Ocean Physical Reanalysis System (C-GLORS) is used  to simulate the state of the ocean in the last decades. It consists of a variational data assimilation system (OceanVar), capable of assimilating all in-situ observations along with altimetry data,…

    • Timestep

    • Daily, Monthly, Weekly
    • Collections

    • None
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 SST, SLP, air temperature, wind speed, cloud amount, and others. There is no processing beyond…

AIRS and AMSU: Tropospheric air temperature and specific humidity AIRS and AMSU: Tropospheric air temperature and specific humidity
  • Years of record

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The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) project has generated decadal-length, global, gridded data sets of temperature and specific humidity for several standard levels in the troposphere for the obs4MIPS project. This obs4MIPS version of the AIRS data are available at…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Air Temperature Specific Humidity
Cloud observations from MODIS Cloud observations from MODIS
  • Years of record

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The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is scanning instrument that makes measurements in 36 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared at spatial resolutions from 250 m to 1 km. There are MODIS instruments aboard two sun-synchronous polar-…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Cloud Properties
ORAS4: ECMWF Ocean Reanalysis and derived ocean heat content ORAS4: ECMWF Ocean Reanalysis and derived ocean heat content
  • Years of record

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ECMWF's current ocean reanalysis uses a sophisticated data assimilation methodology which includes a model bias correction. The ocean model used is forced by atmospheric daily surface fluxes, relaxed to SST and bias corrected. The Balmaseda et al (QJRMS 2013) reference…

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • None
NSIDC Sea Ice Index NSIDC Sea Ice Index
  • Years of record

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The NSIDC Sea Ice Index is a suite of easy-to-use sea ice analyses to track changes in Arctic and Antarctic sea ice. The product is produced and supported by the NOAA at NSIDC group and consists of browse imagery and data text files (CSV or Excel format). The input data is…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Sea Ice Concentration
SST data: NOAA Extended Reconstruction SSTs, Version 4 SST data: NOAA Extended Reconstruction SSTs, Version 4
  • Years of record

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The NOAA Extended Reconstruction Sea Surface Temperature (ERSST) provides global, spatially complete SST data at a monthly timestep for 1854-present.  Compared to the previous version, Version 4 uses the more extensive ICOADS Release 2.5 data and revised quality…

Main variables and Earth System components

Ocean SST - sea surface temperature
SST data: HadSST3 SST data: HadSST3
  • Years of record

  • to

HadSST3 provides monthly SST anomalies on a 5°x5° grid for 1850-present. The anomalies are derived from a 30-year climatology spanning 1961-90.Coverage is global but there is no interpolation; Thus, missing data occur in the final product. The primary input data are from…

Main variables and Earth System components

Ocean SST - sea surface temperature
U.S. Climate Extremes Index (CEI) U.S. Climate Extremes Index (CEI)
  • Years of record

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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 present, the CEI evaluates the percent area of extremes in the distribution of much above/below average…

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

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HadEX3 provides gridded, station-based indices of temperature- and precipitation- related climate extremes and supersedes HadEX2. It is intended for global and continental climate monitoring, detection and attribution studies and climate model evaluation. Twenty-nine…

UK Met Office; contributed by Colin Raymond HadISD: Sub-daily, non-interpolated weather station data
  • Years of record

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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 Surface Database but with various quality-control checks implemented to remove stations with…

    • Timestep

    • Sub-daily
    • Collections

    • None
) Example of CloudSat and CALIPSO cloud mask along a single orbit. (contributed by Will Bertrand) Combined CloudSat spaceborne radar and CALIPSO spaceborne lidar cloud fraction dataset (3S-GEOPROF-COMB)
  • Years of record

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A global (82S-82N) cloud fraction data set, providing a unique view of cloud vertical structure, has been developed based on the complimentary spaceborne remote sensing capabilities of the CloudSat radar and the CALISPSO lidar. The data set provides monthly mean cloud…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Cloud Properties
Ocean temperature analysis and heat content estimate from Institute of Atmospheric Physics Ocean temperature analysis and heat content estimate from Institute of Atmospheric Physics
  • Years of record

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The Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) ocean temperature analysis features global coverage of the oceans, at 1° x1° horizontal resolution on 41 vertical levels from 1-2000m, and monthly resolution from 1940 to present.  As such, it is aimed at studies of climate…

Main variables and Earth System components

Ocean Ocean Heat Content Sea Level Sub Surface Temperature
Drought atlases from tree rings Drought atlases from tree rings
  • Years of record

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Tree-ring drought atlases provide a paleoclimate analog to modern drought indices, most commonly the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI).  Produced on a regular lat-lon grid for regions such as North America, Europe, and Australia, these centuries-long datasets are…

Main variables and Earth System components

Land Drought
COSP: Cloud Feedback Model Intercomparison Project (CFMIP) Observation Simulator Package COSP: Cloud Feedback Model Intercomparison Project (CFMIP) Observation Simulator Package
  • Years of record

Cloud processes and feedbacks are recognized as the largest uncertainty in climate model projections. Progress in understanding the roles of clouds in the response of the Earth to changes in external forcing (GHG, aerosoles, etc.) has in part been hampered by the lack of a…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Cloud Properties
COREv2 Air-Sea Surface Fluxes COREv2 Air-Sea Surface Fluxes
  • Years of record

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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 1948-2009 at monthly resolution.  This data set serves as a set of common atmospheric boundary…

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

  • to

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 assimilated include surface pressures from the International Surface Pressure Databank v3.2.6 and ICOADS v…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Multiple variables Cryosphere Sea Ice Concentration Ocean
    • Timestep

    • Sub-daily, Daily, Monthly
    • Collections

    • None
graph Simulation performance of 19 Earth system models (credit: Justin Makin and Corey Lesk) Making sense of data from Land Surface Models (LSMs)
  • Years of record

The land surface is a dynamic and complex component of the Earth system, shaping climate and biogeochemical cycles and serving as the origin of many anthropogenic impacts on the planet. Comprising complex and interactive organic and inorganic systems (soils, rocks, water…

Main variables and Earth System components

Biosphere Land
    • Formats

    • Timestep

    • Domain

    • Collections

    • None
Global Mean Sea Level from TOPEX & Jason Altimetry Global Mean Sea Level from TOPEX & Jason Altimetry
  • Years of record

  • to

The global mean sea level timeseries is an excellent, integrative indicator of long-term global temperature trends, providing a record that is observed and processed independent of common metrics like global surface air temperature.  The major contributions to the…

Main variables and Earth System components

Ocean Sea Level
    • Timestep

    • Monthly
    • Collections

    • None
Southern Hemisphere westerly jet strength and position Southern Hemisphere westerly jet strength and position
  • Years of record

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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 the ERA-Interim reanalysis, although other datasets, including climate models, could be used. …

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Wind
speleothems in Soreq cave (credit: Nikita Kaushal) Speleothems and the SISAL database: An overview of the use of speleothems as archives of climate proxies
  • Years of record

Speleothems provide globally distributed, seasonal to multi-annual resolution climate records encoded in multiple proxies including oxygen and carbon stable isotopes, and trace elements. Speleothems, such as stalagmites and flowstones, are secondary cave carbonate deposits…

Main variables and Earth System components

    • Formats

    • Timestep

    • Annual, Decadal, Irregular
    • Collections

    • None
CLARA-A1: Cloud properties, surface albedo and surface radiation products based on AVHRR CLARA-A1: Cloud properties, surface albedo and surface radiation products based on AVHRR
  • Years of record

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"CLARA-A1 (CLoud, Albedo and RAdiation dataset, AVHRR-based, version 1) is a global dataset of cloud properties, surface albedo and surface radiation products, generated by the EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM SAF). The products are derived…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Cloud Properties Liquid Water Path Radiation Surface albedo
Snow Cover Extent (Northern Hemisphere) Climate Data Record, by Rutgers Snow Cover Extent (Northern Hemisphere) Climate Data Record, by Rutgers
  • Years of record

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The Snow Cover Extent Climate Data Record extends from the late 1960s to present. Historical analyses based on visual inspection have been digitized and combined with modern multi-spectral remote sensing to produce a seamless record on a hemispheric scale. The data are…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Snow Cover Land
CloudSat CloudSat
  • Years of record

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CloudSat is a satellite mission designed to measure the vertical structure of clouds from space. The radar data produces detailed images of cloud structures. CloudSat is one of a constellation of satellites known as the A-Train (Cloudsat, CALIPSO, PARASOL, Aqua, Aura,…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Cloud Properties
    • Timestep

    • Monthly
    • Collections

    • None
  • Experts contributing reviews

  • None
The monthly averaged downscaled 1 km and 9 km SMAP SM of descending overpass (6 a.m.) from 2020 in Danube River basin. (contributed by Bin Fang and Venkat Lakshmi) SMAP-Derived 1-km Downscaled Surface Soil Moisture
  • Years of record

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This data product contains global daily 1 km resolution surface soil moisture (SM) derived from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) L-band radiometer observations. Specifically, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land surface temperature and…

Main variables and Earth System components

Land Soil Moisture
    • Formats

    • Timestep

    • Daily
    • Collections

    • None
Climate Data Records: Overview Climate Data Records: Overview
  • Years of record

As defined by a US National Research Council committee, a Climate Data Record (CDR) is "a time series of measurements of sufficient length, consistency and continuity to determine climate variability and change." In the US, agencies such as NASA and NOAA have sponsored…

Main variables and Earth System components

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • None
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

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The National Oceanography Centre  (NOC) Version 2.0 Surface Flux and Meteorological Dataset is a monthly mean gridded dataset of marine surface measurements and derived fluxes constructed using optimal interpolation. Input for the period 1973 to 2006 are ICOADS…