ERA5 Reanalysis Model Level Data
d633006
<p>After many years of research and technical preparation, the production of a new ECMWF climate reanalysis to replace ERA-Interim is in progress. ERA5 is the fifth generation of ECMWF atmospheric reanalyses of the global climate, which started with the FGGE reanalyses produced in the 1980s, followed by ERA-15, ERA-40 and most recently ERA-Interim. ERA5 will cover the period January 1950 to near real time.</p> <p>ERA5 is produced using high-resolution forecasts (HRES) at 31 kilometer resolution (one fourth the spatial resolution of the operational model) and a 62 kilometer resolution ten member 4D-Var ensemble of data assimilation (EDA) in CY41r2 of ECMWF's Integrated Forecast System (IFS) with 137 hybrid sigma-pressure (model) levels in the vertical, up to a top level of 0.01 hPa. Atmospheric data on these levels are interpolated to 37 pressure levels (the same levels as in ERA-Interim). Surface or single level data are also available, containing 2D parameters such as precipitation, 2 meter temperature, top of atmosphere radiation and vertical integrals over the entire atmosphere. The IFS is coupled to a soil model, the parameters of which are also designated as surface parameters, and an ocean wave model. Generally, the data is available at an hourly frequency and consists of analyses and short (12 hour) forecasts, initialized twice daily from analyses at 06 and 18 UTC. Most analyses parameters are also available from the forecasts. There are a number of forecast parameters, for example mean rates and accumulations, that are not available from the analyses.</p> <p>Improvements to ERA5, compared to ERA-Interim, include use of HadISST.2, reprocessed ECMWF climate data records (CDR), and implementation of RTTOV11 radiative transfer. Variational bias corrections have not only been applied to satellite radiances, but also ozone retrievals, aircraft observations, surface pressure, and radiosonde profiles.</p> <p><font color="red">Please note:</font> DECS is producing a CF 1.6 compliant netCDF-4/HDF5 version of ERA5 for the CISL RDA at NCAR. The netCDF-4/HDF5 version is the <i>default</i> RDA ERA5 <i>online</i> data format.</p>
dataset
https://gdex.ucar.edu/datasets/d633006/
protocol: https
name: Dataset Description
description: Related Link
function: information
https://gdex.ucar.edu/datasets/d633006/dataaccess/
protocol: https
name: Data Access
description: Related Link
function: download
climatologyMeteorologyAtmosphere
dataset
revision
2021-03-30
ECMWF ERA5 > ECMWF ERA5 Atmospheric Reanalysis
revision
2025-10-03
EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE > SURFACE PRESSURE
EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE > UPPER AIR TEMPERATURE
EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR > WATER VAPOR INDICATORS > HUMIDITY > SPECIFIC HUMIDITY
EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC WINDS > UPPER LEVEL WINDS > U/V WIND COMPONENTS
EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC WINDS > WIND DYNAMICS > VERTICAL WIND VELOCITY/SPEED
revision
2025-10-03
-180.0
180.0
89.785
-89.785
1979-01-01T0000+00
2025-07-31T2300+00
publication
2022-09-26
monthly
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
None
pointOfContact
NSF NCAR Geoscience Data Exchange
name: NSF NCAR Geoscience Data Exchange
description: The Geoscience Data Exchange (GDEX), managed by the Computational and Information Systems Laboratory (CISL) at NSF NCAR, contains a large collection of meteorological, atmospheric composition, and oceanographic observations, and operational and reanalysis model outputs, integrated with NSF NCAR High Performance Compute services to support atmospheric and geosciences research.
function: download
pointOfContact
2025-10-09T01:47:32Z