ERA5-Land hourly data from 1950 to present

Description

ERA5-Land is a reanalysis dataset providing a consistent view of the evolution of land variables over several decades at an enhanced resolution compared to ERA5. ERA5-Land has been produced by replaying the land component of the ECMWF ERA5 climate reanalysis. Reanalysis combines model data with observations from across the world into a globally complete and consistent dataset using the laws of physics. Reanalysis produces data that goes several decades back in time, providing an accurate description of the climate of the past.

ERA5-Land uses as input to control the simulated land fields ERA5 atmospheric variables, such as air temperature and air humidity. This is called the atmospheric forcing. Without the constraint of the atmospheric forcing, the model-based estimates can rapidly deviate from reality. Therefore, while observations are not directly used in the production of ERA5-Land, they have an indirect influence through the atmospheric forcing used to run the simulation. In addition, the input air temperature, air humidity and pressure used to run ERA5-Land are corrected to account for the altitude difference between the grid of the forcing and the higher resolution grid of ERA5-Land. This correction is called 'lapse rate correction'.

The ERA5-Land dataset, as any other simulation, provides estimates which have some degree of uncertainty. Numerical models can only provide a more or less accurate representation of the real physical processes governing different components of the Earth System. In general, the uncertainty of model estimates grows as we go back in time, because the number of observations available to create a good quality atmospheric forcing is lower. ERA5-land parameter fields can currently be used in combination with the uncertainty of the equivalent ERA5 fields.

The temporal and spatial resolutions (0.1 X 0.1 degrees) of ERA5-Land makes this dataset very useful for all kind of land surface applications such as flood or drought forecasting. The temporal and spatial resolution of this dataset, the period covered in time, as well as the fixed grid used for the data distribution at any period enables decisions makers, businesses and individuals to access and use more accurate information on land states.

The vertical coverage of the dataset ranges from 2 m above the surface level, to a soil depth of 289 cm.

Some parameters are defined at 2 m over the surface. The surface model has 4 layers: 

• Layer 1: 0 -7cm
• Layer 2: 7 -28cm
• Layer 3: 28-100cm
• Layer 4: 100-289cm 

The ERA5 datasets are available locally on the NCI server. The files are downloaded from the Climate Data Store (https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/cdsapp#!/home) in netcdf format and have internal compression added.

For more information on the NCI version see their documentation and Geonetwork record in related identifiers.

The availability of ERA5 data at NCI has been made possible through ARC LIEF Grant LE200100040. The LIEF grant is supported by a collaboration and co-funding involving Monash University, the Australian National University, the University of Melbourne, the University of New South Wales, the University of Tasmania and NCI.

Access information (English)

Preferred citation:

Muñoz Sabater, J., (2021): ERA5-Land hourly data from 1950 to 1980. Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store (CDS). (Accessed on < DD-MMM-YYYY >), 10.24381/cds.e2161bac

Local host (English)

Direct access to the data is available on the NCI servers:

• path: /g/data/zz93/era5-land/reanalysis

To join project: 

• https://my.nci.org.au/mancini/login?next=/mancini/project/zz93

Can also be accessed via this intake catalogue: 

• https://github.com/coecms/nci-intake-catalogue/blob/main/docs/intake_era5_demo.ipynb

Additional details