NCAR Resarch Data Archive logo

WATer and global CHange (WATCH) Forcing Data (WFD) - 20th Century

d314001
| DOI: 10.5065/1B5Z-KQ51
 
Abstract:

New global sub-daily meteorological forcing data are provided for use with land surface and hydrological-models. The data are derived from the ERA-40 reanalysis product via sequential interpolation to half-degree resolution, elevation correction and monthly-scale adjustments based on CRU (corrected-temperature, diurnal temperature range, cloud-cover) and GPCC (precipitation) monthly observations combined with new corrections for varying atmospheric aerosol-loading and separate precipitation gauge corrections for rainfall and snowfall. The WATCH Forcing data is a twentieth century meteorological forcing dataset for land surface and hydrological models. It consists of three of 6-hourly states of the weather for global half-degree land grid points. It was generated as part of the EU FP 6 project "WATCH" (WATer and global CHange") which ran from 2007-2011. The data was generated in 2 time periods with slightly different methodology: 1901-1957 and 1958-2001, but generally the dataset can be considered as continuous. More details regarding the generation process can be found in the associated WATCH technical report and paper in J. Hydrometeorology. The data covers land points only and excludes the Antarctica.

Temporal Range:
1901-01-01 00:00 +0000 to 2001-12-31 22:30 +0000 (Entire dataset) Period details by dataset product
Variables:
Air Temperature Humidity Precipitation Rate Solar Radiation
Surface Pressure Surface Winds
Vertical Levels:
See the detailed metadata for level information.
Data Types:
Grid
Spatial Coverage:
Longitude Range: Westernmost=180W Easternmost=180E
Latitude Range: Southernmost=90S Northernmost=90N Detailed coverage information
Data Contributors:
UK/MOD/MET/HADLEY
Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, Met Office, Ministry of Defence, United Kingdom
Total Volume:
1.38 TB (Entire dataset) Volume details by dataset product
Data Formats:
More Details:
View a more detailed summary of the data, including specific date ranges and locations by parameter
Metadata Record:
Data License:
Citation counts are compiled through information provided by publicly-accessible APIs according to the guidelines developed through the https://makedatacount.org/ project. If journals do not provide citation information to these publicly-accessible services, then this citation information will not be included in RDA citation counts. Additionally citations that include dataset DOIs are the only types included in these counts, so legacy citations without DOIs, references found in publication acknowledgements, or references to a related publication that describes a dataset will not be included in these counts.