ERA5 Reanalysis (0.25 Degree Latitude-Longitude Grid)

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.

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.

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.

To Access Resource:

Questions? Email Resource Support Contact:

  • Dave Stepaniak
    davestep@ucar.edu
    NSF NCAR - Geoscience Data Exchange

Temporal Range

  • Begin:  1940-01-01T00:00:00Z
    End:  2025-07-31T23:00:00Z

Keywords

Resource Type dataset
Temporal Range Begin 1940-01-01T00:00:00Z
Temporal Range End 2025-07-31T23:00:00Z
Temporal Resolution N/A
Bounding Box North Lat 90
Bounding Box South Lat -90
Bounding Box West Long -180
Bounding Box East Long 180
Spatial Representation grid
Spatial Resolution 0.25 degree
Related Links

Related Resource #1 : Copernicus Climate Data Store (CDS) -GRIB formatted ERA5 data available for direct download

Related Resource #2 : ERA-5 on AWS

Related Resource #3 : GRIB and ARCO Ready (Zarr format) version of ERA5 Hosted on Google Cloud Services -Available for direct download

Related Resource #4 : Tool to convert ERA5 NetCDF to WRF Intermediate Format
Additional Information N/A
Resource Format NetCDF4
Standardized Resource Format NetCDF
Asset Size 882645667 MB
Legal Constraints

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Access Constraints None
Software Implementation Language N/A

Resource Support Name Dave Stepaniak
Resource Support Email davestep@ucar.edu
Resource Support Organization NSF NCAR - Geoscience Data Exchange
Distributor NSF NCAR Geoscience Data Exchange
Metadata Contact Name N/A
Metadata Contact Email datahelp@ucar.edu
Metadata Contact Organization NSF NCAR Geoscience Data Exchange

Author European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
Publisher NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research
Publication Date 2019-05-13
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) https://doi.org/10.5065/BH6N-5N20
Alternate Identifier d633000
Resource Version N/A
Topic Category climatologyMeteorologyAtmosphere
Progress onGoing
Metadata Date 2025-10-03T01:20:51Z
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.gdex::d633000
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. (2019). ERA5 Reanalysis (0.25 Degree Latitude-Longitude Grid). NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research. https://doi.org/10.5065/BH6N-5N20. Accessed 04 October 2025.

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