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 × 5° latitude × 10° longitude. This corresponds to an array chunk shape of 1440 (valid_time) × 50 (latitude) × 100 (longitude).

⚠️ Changelog

This dataset moved to Zarr v3 in July 2026 and needs zarr-python 3 or newer. The previous Zarr v2 version is no longer updated: please switch using the migration guide.

How to download the data

This Python snippet includes the token directly in the URL.

1import xarray as xr
2
3xr.open_dataset(
4    # Replace <your API key> with your actual key
5    "https://edh:<your API key>@data.earthdatahub.destine.eu/era5/era5-land-v0.zarr",
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