Downloading the data

Downloading the data#

All data files used in the lecture are available on the QCR webserver.

Links and info to be added here as the course unfolds.

ERA5 data (global)#

Ready to use, global low resolution NetCDF files#

ERA5 is an atmospheric reanalysis product. Note that you can download the data yourself (I provide some sample scripts below), but for a start you can download some files I prepared for you:

Invariant (2D) data:

ERA5_LowRes_Invariant.nc

Monthly surface (3D) data:

ERA5_LowRes_Monthly_t2m.nc: 2m temperature
ERA5_LowRes_Monthly_tp.nc: total precipitation

File naming conventions:

LowRes means that I asked for a lower spatial resolution than available (0.75° instead of the 0.25° default).
Monthly means that I averaged the data to calendar months
MonthlyAvg means that I averaged the data to all months (annual cycle)
4D means that the data is also available on pressure levels
t2m or tp are variable names
Invariant means that this file contains time invariant fields such as topography or land-sea mask.

Additional ERA5 data from the CDS servers (optional)#

You may want to download ERA5 data yourself if:

you’d like additional variables not listed above
you’d like to use high resolution data (0.25°) instead of the low resolution (0.75°) that I provided
you’d like to download hourly or daily data instead of monthly data

If you want to go this path (optional), you’ll need an account at the Copernicus Data Store

You may want to use their online platform to analyze/download the data, or you can use a script.

Here are a few example scripts to get you started:

script I used to download all the data listed above: download_era5.ipynb
script I used to download the “ultra low res” data listed in the CMIP6 section - the only change is the grid resolution: download_era5_lr.ipynb
script I used to download the high resolution data (0.25°) over West Africa: download_era5_hr_wa.ipynb

Timeseries data#

Weather station data#

The “Global Surface Summary of the Day” database is managed by NOAA. It contains daily weather station data from all over the world. These data are open access by the way! You can download them yourself from the page linked above.

I downloaded the data for the Heathrow weather station near London and provide it here:

gsod-heathrow.csv

I also downloaded Bristol and Cardiff data if you are interested:

Since we can’t trust the current US adminstration to keep this infrastructure running for the duration of the class, I mirred the GSOD readme on our server - you’ll find it here.

Daily precipitation and streamflow from the national river flow archive#

The national river flow archive is a great resource for hydrologist. I downloaded the daily streamflow and precipitation data (search tool) for the Chew river near Bristol (station 53004) and provide it here:

Chew at Compton Dando - Gauged Daily Flow (gdf): 53004_gdf.csv
Chew at Compton Dando - Catchment daily rainfall (cdr): 53004_cdr.csv

Documentation: