ERA5-Land hourly data

This dataset is a curated subset of land surface quantities derived from ECMWF’s ERA5-Land hourly data from 1950 to present.

Built upon the Climate Data Store (CDS) version of ERA5-Land, this dataset is distributed as a Zarr archive. It is designed to offer a fast, highly accessible alternative for querying ERA5-Land global reanalysis data.

📊 Chunking Specifications

To optimize data access performance for regional and time-series analyses, the dataset employs a spatio-temporal chunking scheme of 60 days × 10° latitude × 10° longitude. This corresponds to an array chunk shape of 1440 (valid_time) × 50 (latitude) × 100 (longitude).

⚠️ Changelog

This dataset was recently migrated to Zarr v3. As part of this migration, the chunking scheme was changed to improve data access performance. See Chunking Specifications for further details.

To access this dataset, you will need a Zarr v3-compatible library (e.g., zarr-python >= 3.x). Python users can upgrade their environment using: pip install "zarr>3".

The previous version of the dataset is still available here.

How to download the data

The default (and preferred) way to access the data requires accessing the api.earthdatahub.destine.eu domain and a valid API key.

Method 1: quick access

It is possible to include the token directly in the URL.

1import xarray as xr
2
3xr.open_dataset(
4    "https://edh:<your personal access token>@api.earthdatahub.destine.eu/era5/era5-land-v0.zarr",
5    chunks={},
6    engine="zarr",
7)

Method 2: advanced access

The Python snippet gather the token from a netrc file.

It's required to before running the code snippet below.
1import xarray as xr
2
3xr.open_dataset(
4    "https://api.earthdatahub.destine.eu/era5/era5-land-v0.zarr",
5    storage_options={"client_kwargs":{"trust_env":True}},
6    chunks={},
7    engine="zarr",
8)

Variables

Short NameUnitsDescription
asn
(0 - 1)

Snow albedo

d2m
K

2 metre dewpoint temperature

e
m of water equivalent

Evaporation

es
m of water equivalent

Snow evaporation

evabs
m of water equivalent

Evaporation from bare soil

evaow
m of water equivalent

Evaporation from open water surfaces excluding oceans

evatc
m of water equivalent

Evaporation from the top of canopy

evavt
m of water equivalent

Evaporation from vegetation transpiration

fal
(0 - 1)

Forecast albedo

lai_hv
m2 m-2

Leaf area index, high vegetation

lai_lv
m2 m-2

Leaf area index, low vegetation

lblt
K

Lake bottom temperature

licd
m

Lake ice total depth

lict
K

Lake ice surface temperature

lmld
m

Lake mix-layer depth

lmlt
K

Lake mix-layer temperature

lshf
dimensionless

Lake shape factor

ltlt
K

Lake total layer temperature

pev
m

Potential evaporation

ro
m

Runoff

rsn
kg m-3

Snow density

sd
m of water equivalent

Snow depth

sde
m

Snow depth

sf
m of water equivalent

Snowfall

skt
K

Skin temperature

slhf
J m-2

Surface latent heat flux

smlt
m of water equivalent

Snowmelt

snowc
%

Snow cover

sp
Pa

Surface pressure

src
m of water equivalent

Skin reservoir content

sro
m

Surface runoff

sshf
J m-2

Surface sensible heat flux

ssr
J m-2

Surface net short-wave (solar) radiation

ssrd
J m-2

Surface short-wave (solar) radiation downwards

ssro
m

Sub-surface runoff

stl1
K

Soil temperature level 1

stl2
K

Soil temperature level 2

stl3
K

Soil temperature level 3

stl4
K

Soil temperature level 4

str
J m-2

Surface net long-wave (thermal) radiation

strd
J m-2

Surface long-wave (thermal) radiation downwards

swvl1
m3 m-3

Volumetric soil water layer 1

swvl2
m3 m-3

Volumetric soil water layer 2

swvl3
m3 m-3

Volumetric soil water layer 3

swvl4
m3 m-3

Volumetric soil water layer 4

t2m
K

2 metre temperature

tp
m

Total precipitation

tsn
K

Temperature of snow layer

u10
m s-1

10 metre U wind component

v10
m s-1

10 metre V wind component

DestinE platform