ERA5 monthly data on single levels - atmosphere

This dataset is a Zarr mirror of atmospheric quantities from ERA5 monthly averaged data on single levels from 1940 to present.

It is designed to offer a fast, highly accessible alternative for querying ERA5 single levels' monthly averaged data for atmospheric fields.

The dataset employs a spatio-temporal chunking scheme of 10 years × 60° latitude × 60° longitude. This corresponds to an array chunk shape of 120 (valid_time) × 240 (latitude) × 240 (longitude).

⚠️ Changelog

This dataset was recently migrated to Zarr v3. 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. Note that the old version of this dataset contains far less variables.

💻 Usage

You can use this dataset to derive up-to-date monthly anomalies of Essential Climate Variables

Example Code

# Choose one of the methods below to open the dataset
# Aassign it to a variable named `era5_monthly`

# Extract the 2 metre temperaute
t2m = era5_monthly.t2m

# Compute the monthly climatology (1991-2020) in one chained step
t2m_1991_2020_clima = (
    t2m.sel(valid_time=slice("1991", "2020"))
    .groupby("valid_time.month")
    .mean()
)

# Compute the anomalies
t2m_anomaly = (t2m.groupby("valid_time.month") - t2m_1991_2020_clima)

# Optional: load the data into memory
t2m_anomaly.load()

How to download the data

This Python snippet includes the token directly in the URL.

1import xarray as xr
2
3xr.open_dataset(
4    "https://edh:<your API key>@data.earthdatahub.destine.eu/era5/era5-single-levels-atmosphere-monthly-v0.zarr",
5    chunks={},
6    engine="zarr",
7)

Variables

Short Name	Units	Description
alnid	(0 - 1)	Near IR albedo for diffuse radiation (climatological)
alnip	(0 - 1)	Near IR albedo for direct radiation (climatological)
aluvd	(0 - 1)	UV visible albedo for diffuse radiation (climatological)
aluvp	(0 - 1)	UV visible albedo for direct radiation (climatological)
anor	radians	Angle of sub-gridscale orography
asn	(0 - 1)	Snow albedo
avg_cpr	kg m^-2 s^-1	Time-mean convective precipitation rate
avg_csfr	kg m^-2 s^-1	Time-mean convective snowfall rate water equivalent
avg_esrwe	kg m^-2 s^-1	Time-mean snow evaporation rate water equivalent
avg_ibld	W m^-2	Time-mean boundary layer dissipation
avg_ie	kg m^-2 s^-1	Time-mean moisture flux
avg_iegwss	N m^-2	Time-mean eastward gravity wave surface stress
avg_iews	N m^-2	Time-mean eastward turbulent surface stress
avg_igwd	W m^-2	Time-mean gravity wave dissipation
avg_ilspf	Proportion	Time-mean large-scale precipitation fraction
avg_imagss	N m^-2	Time-mean magnitude of turbulent surface stress
avg_ingwss	N m^-2	Time-mean northward gravity wave surface stress
avg_inss	N m^-2	Time-mean northward turbulent surface stress
avg_ishf	W m^-2	Time-mean surface sensible heat flux
avg_lsprate	kg m^-2 s^-1	Time-mean large-scale precipitation rate
avg_lssfr	kg m^-2 s^-1	Time-mean large scale snowfall rate water equivalent
avg_pevr	kg m^-2 s^-1	Time-mean potential evaporation rate
avg_rorwe	kg m^-2 s^-1	Time-mean runoff rate water equivalent (surface plus subsurface)
avg_sdirswrf	W m^-2	Time-mean surface direct short-wave radiation flux
avg_sdirswrfcs	W m^-2	Time-mean surface direct short-wave radiation flux, clear sky
avg_sdlwrf	W m^-2	Time-mean surface downward long-wave radiation flux
avg_sdlwrfcs	W m^-2	Time-mean surface downward long-wave radiation flux, clear sky
avg_sdswrf	W m^-2	Time-mean surface downward short-wave radiation flux
avg_sdswrfcs	W m^-2	Time-mean surface downward short-wave radiation flux, clear sky
avg_sduvrf	W m^-2	Time-mean surface downward UV radiation flux
avg_slhtf	W m^-2	Time-mean surface latent heat flux
avg_smr	kg m^-2 s^-1	Time-mean snow melt rate
avg_snlwrf	W m^-2	Time-mean surface net long-wave radiation flux
avg_snlwrfcs	W m^-2	Time-mean surface net long-wave radiation flux, clear sky
avg_snswrf	W m^-2	Time-mean surface net short-wave radiation flux
avg_snswrfcs	W m^-2	Time-mean surface net short-wave radiation flux, clear sky
avg_ssurfror	kg m^-2 s^-1	Time-mean sub-surface runoff rate
avg_surfror	kg m^-2 s^-1	Time-mean surface runoff rate
avg_tdswrf	W m^-2	Time mean top downward short-wave radiation flux
avg_tnlwrf	W m^-2	Time-mean top net long-wave radiation flux
avg_tnlwrfcs	W m^-2	Time-mean top net long-wave radiation flux, clear sky
avg_tnswrf	W m^-2	Time-mean top net short-wave radiation flux
avg_tnswrfcs	W m^-2	Time-mean top net short-wave radiation flux, clear sky
avg_tprate	kg m^-2 s^-1	Time-mean total precipitation rate
avg_tsrwe	kg m^-2 s^-1	Time-mean total snowfall rate water equivalent
avg_vimdf	kg m^-2 s^-1	Time-mean total column vertically-integrated moisture divergence flux
bld	J m^-2	Time-integrated boundary layer dissipation
blh	m	Boundary layer height
cape	J kg^-1	Convective available potential energy
cbh	m	Cloud base height
cdir	J m^-2	Surface direct short-wave radiation, clear sky
chnk	Numeric	Charnock
cin	J kg^-1	Convective inhibition
cl	(0 - 1)	Lake cover
cp	m	Convective precipitation
crr	kg m^-2 s^-1	Convective rain rate
csf	m of water equivalent	Convective snowfall
cvh	(0 - 1)	High vegetation cover
cvl	(0 - 1)	Low vegetation cover
d2m	K	2 metre dewpoint temperature
dctb	m	Duct base height
deg0l	m	Geometric height of 0 degrees C atmospheric isothermal level above ground
dl	m	Lake total depth
dndza	m^-1	Mean vertical gradient of refractivity inside trapping layer
dndzn	m^-1	Minimum vertical gradient of refractivity inside trapping layer
e	m of water equivalent	Evaporation
es	m of water equivalent	Snow evaporation
ewss	N m^-2 s	Time-integrated eastward turbulent surface stress
fal	(0 - 1)	Forecast albedo
fdir	J m^-2	Surface direct short-wave (solar) radiation
flsr	Numeric	Forecast logarithm of surface roughness for heat
fsr	m	Forecast surface roughness
gwd	J m^-2	Gravity wave dissipation
hcc	(0 - 1)	High cloud cover
i10fg	m s^-1	Instantaneous 10 metre wind gust
ie	kg m^-2 s^-1	Instantaneous moisture flux
iews	N m^-2	Instantaneous eastward turbulent surface stress
ilspf	Proportion	Instantaneous large-scale precipitation fraction
inss	N m^-2	Instantaneous northward turbulent surface stress
ishf	W m^-2	Instantaneous surface sensible heat net flux
isor	Numeric	Anisotropy of sub-gridscale orography
istl1	K	Ice temperature layer 1
istl2	K	Ice temperature layer 2
istl3	K	Ice temperature layer 3
istl4	K	Ice temperature layer 4
kx	K	K index
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
lcc	(0 - 1)	Low cloud cover
lgws	N m^-2 s	Eastward gravity wave surface stress
licd	m	Lake ice total depth
lict	K	Lake ice surface temperature
lmld	m	Lake mix-layer depth
lmlt	K	Lake mix-layer temperature
lsf	m of water equivalent	Large-scale snowfall
lshf	dimensionless	Lake shape factor
lsm	(0 - 1)	Land-sea mask
lsp	m	Large-scale precipitation
lspf	s	Large-scale precipitation fraction
lsrr	kg m^-2 s^-1	Large scale rain rate
lssfr	kg m^-2 s^-1	Large scale snowfall rate water equivalent
ltlt	K	Lake total layer temperature
magss	N m^-2 s	Time-integrated magnitude of turbulent surface stress
mcc	(0 - 1)	Medium cloud cover
mgws	N m^-2 s	Northward gravity wave surface stress
msl	Pa	Mean sea level pressure
nsss	N m^-2 s	Time-integrated northward turbulent surface stress
pev	m	Potential evaporation
ptype	(Code table 4.201)	Precipitation type
ro	m	Runoff
rsn	kg m^-3	Snow density
sd	m of water equivalent	Snow depth
sdfor	m	Standard deviation of filtered subgrid orography (climatological)
sdor	m	Standard deviation of sub-gridscale orography
sf	m of water equivalent	Snowfall
si10	m s^-1	10 metre wind speed
siconc	(0 - 1)	Sea ice area fraction
skt	K	Skin temperature
slhf	J m^-2	Time-integrated surface latent heat net flux
slor	Numeric	Slope of sub-gridscale orography
slt	(Code table 4.213)	Soil type
smlt	m of water equivalent	Snowmelt
sp	Pa	Surface pressure
src	m of water equivalent	Skin reservoir content
sro	m	Surface runoff
sshf	J m^-2	Time-integrated surface sensible heat net flux
ssr	J m^-2	Surface net short-wave (solar) radiation
ssrc	J m^-2	Surface net short-wave (solar) radiation, clear sky
ssrd	J m^-2	Surface short-wave (solar) radiation downwards
ssrdc	J m^-2	Surface short-wave (solar) radiation downward clear-sky
ssro	m	Sub-surface runoff
sst	K	Sea surface temperature
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
strc	J m^-2	Surface net long-wave (thermal) radiation, clear sky
strd	J m^-2	Surface long-wave (thermal) radiation downwards
strdc	J m^-2	Surface long-wave (thermal) radiation downward clear-sky
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
tcc	(0 - 1)	Total cloud cover
tciw	kg m^-2	Total column cloud ice water
tclw	kg m^-2	Total column cloud liquid water
tco3	kg m^-2	Total column ozone
tcrw	kg m^-2	Total column rain water
tcslw	kg m^-2	Total column supercooled liquid water
tcsw	kg m^-2	Total column snow water
tcw	kg m^-2	Total column water
tcwv	kg m^-2	Total column vertically-integrated water vapour
tisr	J m^-2	TOA incident short-wave (solar) radiation
totalx	K	Total totals index
tp	m	Total precipitation
tplb	m	Trapping layer base height
tplt	m	Trapping layer top height
tsn	K	Temperature of snow layer
tsr	J m^-2	Top net short-wave (solar) radiation
tsrc	J m^-2	Top net short-wave (solar) radiation, clear sky
ttr	J m^-2	Top net long-wave (thermal) radiation
ttrc	J m^-2	Top net long-wave (thermal) radiation, clear sky
tvh	(Code table 4.234)	Type of high vegetation
tvl	(Code table 4.234)	Type of low vegetation
u10	m s^-1	10 metre U wind component
u100	m s^-1	100 metre U wind component
u10n	m s^-1	10 metre u-component of neutral wind
uvb	J m^-2	Surface downward UV radiation
v10	m s^-1	10 metre V wind component
v100	m s^-1	100 metre V wind component
v10n	m s^-1	10 metre v-component of neutral wind
viec	W m^-2	Total column vertically-integrated energy conversion
vigd	W m^-2	Total column vertically-integrated divergence of geopotential flux
vige	W m^-1	Total column vertically-integrated eastward geopotential flux
vign	W m^-1	Total column vertically-integrated northward geopotential flux
viiwd	kg m^-2 s^-1	Total column vertically-integrated divergence of cloud frozen water flux
viiwe	kg m^-1 s^-1	Total column vertically-integrated eastward cloud frozen water flux
viiwn	kg m^-1 s^-1	Total column vertically-integrated northward cloud frozen water flux
vike	J m^-2	Total column vertically-integrated kinetic energy
viked	W m^-2	Total column vertically-integrated divergence of kinetic energy flux
vikee	W m^-1	Total column vertically-integrated eastward kinetic energy flux
viken	W m^-1	Total column vertically-integrated northward kinetic energy flux
vilwd	kg m^-2 s^-1	Total column vertically-integrated divergence of cloud liquid water flux
vilwe	kg m^-1 s^-1	Total column vertically-integrated eastward cloud liquid water flux
vilwn	kg m^-1 s^-1	Total column vertically-integrated northward cloud liquid water flux
vima	kg m^-2	Total column vertically-integrated mass of atmosphere
vimad	kg m^-2 s^-1	Total column vertically-integrated divergence of mass flux
vimae	kg m^-1 s^-1	Total column vertically-integrated eastward mass flux
viman	kg m^-1 s^-1	Total column vertically-integrated northward mass flux
vimat	kg m^-2 s^-1	Total column vertically-integrated mass tendency
vimd	kg m^-2	Vertically integrated moisture divergence
vimdf	kg m^-2 s^-1	Total column vertically-integrated moisture divergence flux
viozd	kg m^-2 s^-1	Total column vertically-integrated divergence of ozone flux
vioze	kg m^-1 s^-1	Total column vertically-integrated eastward ozone flux
viozn	kg m^-1 s^-1	Total column vertically-integrated northward ozone flux
vipie	J m^-2	Total column vertically-integrated potential + internal energy
vipile	J m^-2	Total column vertically-integrated potential+internal+latent energy
vit	K kg m^-2	Total column vertically-integrated temperature
vited	W m^-2	Total column vertically-integrated divergence of total energy flux
vitee	W m^-1	Total column vertically-integrated eastward total energy flux
viten	W m^-1	Total column vertically-integrated northward total energy flux
vithe	J m^-2	Total column vertically-integrated enthalpy
vithed	W m^-2	Total column vertically-integrated divergence of thermal energy flux
vithee	W m^-1	Total column vertically-integrated eastward heat flux
vithen	W m^-1	Total column vertically-integrated northward heat flux
vitoe	J m^-2	Total column vertically-integrated total energy
viwve	kg m^-1 s^-1	Total column vertically-integrated eastward water vapour flux
viwvn	kg m^-1 s^-1	Total column vertically-integrated northward water vapour flux
z	m² s^-2	Geopotential
zust	m s^-1	Friction velocity