ALBERT

Description: The W5E5 dataset was compiled to support the bias adjustment of climate input data for the impact assessments carried out in phase 3b of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP3b). Version 2.0 of the W5E5 dataset covers the entire globe at 0.5° horizontal and daily temporal resolution from 1979 to 2019. Data sources of W5E5 are version 2.0 of WATCH Forcing Data methodology applied to ERA5 data (WFDE5; Weedon et al., 2014; Cucchi et al., 2020), ERA5 reanalysis data (Hersbach et al., 2020), and precipitation data from version 2.3 of the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP; Adler et al., 2003). Variables (with short names and units in brackets) included in the W5E5 dataset are Near Surface Relative Humidity (hurs, %), Near Surface Specific Humidity (huss, kg kg-1), Precipitation (pr, kg m-2 s-1), Snowfall Flux (prsn, kg m-2 s-1), Surface Air Pressure (ps, Pa), Sea Level Pressure (psl, Pa), Surface Downwelling Longwave Radiation (rlds, W m-2), Surface Downwelling Shortwave Radiation (rsds, W m-2), Near Surface Wind Speed (sfcWind, m s-1), Near-Surface Air Temperature (tas, K), Daily Maximum Near Surface Air Temperature (tasmax, K), Daily Minimum Near Surface Air Temperature (tasmin, K), Surface Altitude (orog, m), and WFDE5-ERA5 Mask (mask, 1).

Description: The WFDE5 dataset has been generated using the WATCH Forcing Data (WFD) methodology applied to surface meteorological variables from the ERA5 reanalysis. The WFDEI dataset had previously been generated by applying the WFD methodology to ERA-Interim. The WFDE5 is provided at 0.5∘ spatial resolution but has higher temporal resolution (hourly) compared to WFDEI (3-hourly). It also has higher spatial variability since it was generated by aggregation of the higher-resolution ERA5 rather than by interpolation of the lower-resolution ERA-Interim data. Evaluation against meteorological observations at 13 globally distributed FLUXNET2015 sites shows that, on average, WFDE5 has lower mean absolute error and higher correlation than WFDEI for all variables. Bias-adjusted monthly precipitation totals of WFDE5 result in more plausible global hydrological water balance components when analysed in an uncalibrated hydrological model (WaterGAP) than with the use of raw ERA5 data for model forcing. The dataset, which can be downloaded from https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.20d54e34 (C3S, 2020b), is distributed by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) through its Climate Data Store (CDS, C3S, 2020a) and currently spans from the start of January 1979 to the end of 2018. The dataset has been produced using a number of CDS Toolbox applications, whose source code is available with the data – allowing users to regenerate part of the dataset or apply the same approach to other data. Future updates are expected spanning from 1950 to the most recent year. A sample of the complete dataset, which covers the whole of the year 2016, is accessible without registration to the CDS at https://doi.org/10.21957/935p-cj60 (Cucchi et al., 2020). How to cite. Cucchi, M., Weedon, G. P., Amici, A., Bellouin, N., Lange, S., Müller Schmied, H., Hersbach, H., and Buontempo, C.: WFDE5: bias-adjusted ERA5 reanalysis data for impact studies, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 2097–2120, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2097-2020, 2020. Copyright statement. The works published in this journal are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. This license does not affect the Crown copyright work, which is re-usable under the Open Government Licence (OGL). The Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License and the OGL are interoperable and do not conflict with, reduce, or limit each other.