This Climate Data Record (CDR) provides the Surface Radiation Budget, Latent and Sensible Heat Fluxes derived from the Meteosat Visible and InfraRed Imager (MVIRI) on board the Meteosat First Generation (MFG) and the Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI) onboard the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellites. The covered time period ranges from January 1983 to December 2020. Original thermal radiances were inter-calibrated by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). The single radiation components of the surface radiation budget (SRB) are derived from the thermal and optical channels of the MVIRI and SEVIRI instruments onboard the geostationary Meteosat satellites. All components of the SRB are derived jointly based on physical retrieval schemes using the GeoSatClim software. Surface Latent and Sensible Heat fluxes are obtained thanks to an adapted version of the land surface model developed by the Satellite Application Facility on Land Surface Analysis (LSA SAF). While soil moisture and meteorological inputs are adapted from ERA5 dataset, the radiation components of the surface radiation budget described above are taken as model input.

This Climate Data Record (CDR) provides Land Surface Temperature (LST) derived from the Meteosat Visible and InfraRed Imager (MVIRI) on board the Meteosat First Generation (MFG) and the Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI) onboard the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellites. The covered time period ranges from January 1983 to December 2020. Original thermal radiances were inter-calibrated by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). The LST is derived from Meteosat by use of single-channel LST retrieval based on radiative transfer calculations. The LST is presented as hourly data and as monthly averaged diurnal cycle composites on a 0.05°x0.05° grid covering the Meteosat disk (Africa and Europe). A summary of the retrieval algorithms is provided by Duguay–Tetzlaff et al. 2015.

This Climate Data Record (CDR) provides cloud fractional cover (CFC) derived from the Meteosat Visible and InfraRed Imager (MVIRI) on board the Meteosat First Generation (MFG) and the Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI) onboard the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellites. The covered time period ranges from January 1983 to December 2020. Original thermal radiances were inter-calibrated by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). The Meteosat CFC is presented as hourly, daily and monthly composites on a 0.05°x0.05° grid covering the Meteosat disk (Africa and Europe). The CFC data is derived from two Meteosat heritage channels by use of an advanced Bayesian retrieval algorithm. It employs continuous cloud scores, which are built on a contemporaneous clear sky background inversion. The Meteosat CFC is characterized by comparability to the SYNOP-based long-term CFC observations carried out at WMO ground stations. The Meteosat CFC is therefore useful to supplement the ground-based CFC estimates in areas with low station density or high spatio-temporal CFC variability.

The GIRAFE v1 climate data record (CDR) provides precipitation estimates derived from a combination of passive microwave (PMW) observations onboard polar orbiting satellites and infrared (IR) observations onboard geostationary satellites. GIRAFE v1 covers the time period 2002/01/01 until 2022/12/31. The PMW input to GIRAFE v1 is from various microwave imager and sounder instruments. Precipitation rate estimates are retrieved from the observed PMW brightness temperatures by precipitation retrieval algorithms HOAPS, PNPR-CLIM, and PRPS. The resulting archives of instantaneous precipitation rate estimates are homogenized using quantile mapping. The IR input to GIRAFE comes from the five geostationary positions forming the Geo-Ring, providing observations along all geographical longitudes. The spatially and temporally highly resolved IR input is trained to detect the occurrence of precipitation using the PMW-based instantaneous precipitation rate estimates. Conditional precipitation rates are computed based on PMW observations only. At latitudes higher than 55°N/S where Geo-Ring IR pixels are extremely distorted, GIRAFE v1 relies only on the PMW input. GIRAFE v1 is a gridded product which is available globally at a spatial resolution of 1° x 1° and at a temporal resolution of 24 h as accumulated precipitation computed from the (IR-based) fraction of precipitation and the conditional precipitation rate. Additionally, 1° x 1° monthly mean values of the daily accumulated precipitation are provided. The daily accumulated precipitation features a dedicated sampling uncertainty at the same 1° x 1° x 24 h resolution which is based on the analysis of decorrelation scales in space and time in the IR-based precipitation fields.

The second edition of the CM SAF Upper Tropospheric Humidity (UTH) is a satellite-based climate data record. It is a near-global 1°x1° latitude-longitude dataset that is produced with both hourly and daily time steps. The dataset is based on data from twelve passive microwave (MW) sounders operating at 183 GHz in polar orbit that are combined into a single time series covering the period 6 July 1994 to 31 December 2018. The UTH provided typically represents a broad atmospheric layer between 500 and 200 hPa. However, the exact height of this layer depends on the atmospheric conditions at the time of the observation. An optional fixed layer approximation adjustment is supplied that users can apply to provide an estimated mean relative humidity (RH) between ±60° latitude for a fixed layer between 500 and 200 hPa (mean_RH). However, users are advised to take care using this correction, especially outside of the tropics where the mean_RH is of lower quality. Users are also advised to take care using UTH observations above ±60° latitude as the retrieval is sometimes less reliable at high latitudes. Further information describing the dataset in detail can be found in the available product documentation.

The third edition of the Surface Solar Radiation Data Set - Heliosat (SARAH-3) is a satellite-based climate data record of the solar surface irradiance, the surface direct irradiance (direct horizontal and direct normalized), the sunshine duration, the photosynthetically active radiation, daylight, and the effective cloud albedo derived from satellite-observations of the visible channels of the MVIRI and the SEVIRI instruments onboard the geostationary Meteosat satellites. SARAH-3 covers the time period 1983/01/01 until 2020/12/31 as climate data record (CDR) and is operationally extended as interim climate data record (ICDR) to the present with a latency of 5 days; the data cover the region #x00b1;65° longitude and ±65° latitude. The products are available as monthly and daily means, and as 30-min instantaneous data (sunshine duration is available as monthly and daily sum) on a regular latitude/longitude grid with a spatial resolution of 0.05° x 0.05° degrees. The data record is complemented with a comprehensive documentation of the algorithms used and the generation of the data record. Validation report and user guidance are available as well.

The CLARA-A3 record provides cloud properties and radiation parameters derived from the AVHRR sensor onboard polar orbiting NOAA and METOP satellites. CLARA-A3 is the latest edition of CLARA with previous editions documented in Karlsson et al. (2013) and Karlsson et al. (2017). CLARA-A3 covers the time period 1979/01/01 until 2020/12/31 as climate data record (CDR), but is operationally extended as interim climate data record (ICDR) to the present with a latency of 10 days. The AVHRR measurement input to the CLARA-A3 retrieval algorithms is the EUMETSAT PyGAC AVHRR Fundamental Data Record (FDR) Release 1 (DOI:10.15770/EUM_SEC_CLM_0060). CLARA-A3 features a range of cloud products: cloud mask, cloud top temperature/pressure/height, cloud thermodynamic phase, and (for liquid and ice clouds separately) cloud optical thickness, particle effective radius and cloud water path. Additionally, cloud droplet number concentration and cloud geometrical thickness are provided for liquid clouds. Furthermore, a range of radiation products are included in CLARA-A3: surface black-sky, white-sky and blue-sky albedo; surface downwelling short- and longwave radiation as well as surface net radiation; top-of-atmosphere (TOA) upwelling short- and longwave radiation. Cloud products are available as monthly and daily averages and histograms, as well as daily resampled global products (Level 2b) for individual satellites. Surface albedo is presented as monthly and pentad (5 day) averages. Surface and TOA radiation products are provided as daily and monthly averages. All averages are available on a 0.25° x 0.25° global grid. Surface albedo and selected cloud products are also provided on two equal area grids with a resolution of 25 km x 25 km covering the polar regions. Daily resampled cloud products (level 2b) are provided in a global grid with a resolution of 0.05°x0.05°. CLARA-A3 features a comprehensive set of documentation including User Manuals, Validation Reports and Algorithms Theoretical Baseline Documents.

The global total column water vapour (TCWV) data record combines microwave and near-infrared imager based TCWV over the ice-free ocean and over land, coastal ocean as well as sea-ice, respectively. The data record relies on microwave observations from SSM/I, SSMIS, AMSR-E and TMI, partly based on a fundamental climate data record (Fennig et al., 2020; Fennig et al., 2017) and on near-infrared observations from MERIS (3rd reprocessing), MODIS-Terra (collection 6.1) and OLCI (1st reprocessing). Details of the retrieval are described in Andersson et al. (2010) and ATBD HOAPS for the microwave imagers as well as in Lindstrot et al. (2012), Diedrich et al. (2015) and ABTD NIR Level 2 for the near-infrared imagers. The water vapour of the atmosphere is vertically integrated over the full column and given in units of kg/m². The microwave and near-infrared data streams are processed independently and combined afterwards by not changing the individual TCWV values and their uncertainties. The combined data record has a spatial resolution of 0.5°x0.5° and 0.05°x0.05°, with the near-infrared based data being averaged and the microwave-based data being oversampled to match the lower and higher spatial resolution, respectively. The product is available as daily and monthly means and covers the period July 2002 – December 2017.

The CM SAF FCDR of Microwave Imager Radiances comprises inter-calibrated brightness temperatures (BTRs) from the SMMR, SSM/I and SSMIS radiometers. This 4th edition covers the time period from October 1978 to December 2020 including all available data from the SMMR radiometer aboard Nimbus–7, the SSM/I radiometers aboard F08, F10, F11, F13, F14, and F15 and the SSMIS radiometers aboard F16, F17, and F18. This data record has been extended by two more years of SSMIS data in December 2023. This prolongs the end of the covered time period to December 2022. The FCDR provides homogenised and inter-calibrated BTRs in a user-friendly data format. SMMR, SSM/I and SSMIS data are used for a variety of applications, such as analyses of the hydrological cycle and remote sensing of sea ice. The improved homogenization and inter-calibration procedure ensure the long term stability of the FCDR for climate related applications. All available raw data records have been reprocessed to a common standard, starting with the calibration of the raw Earth counts, to ensure a completely homogenized data record. The data processing accounts for several known issues with the instruments and corrects calibration anomalies due to along-scan inhomogeneity, moonlight intrusions, sunlight intrusions, and emissive reflector. Also, an adjustment to the SSMIS geolocation has been implemented in order to improve the consistency. Corrections for SMMR are limited because the SMMR raw data records were not available. Furthermore, the inter-calibration model incorporates a scene dependent inter-satellite bias correction and a non-linearity correction to the instrument calibration. The data files contain all available original sensor data (SMMR: Pathfinder Level 1b) and metadata to provide a completely traceable climate data record. Inter-calibration and Earth incidence angle normalization offsets are available as additional layers within the data files in order to keep this information transparent to the users. The data record is complemented with radiometer sensitivities, quality flags, surface types, and Earth incidence angles.

The CLARA-A2.1 record provides cloud properties, surface albedo and surface radiation parameters derived from the AVHRR sensor onboard polar orbiting NOAA and METOP satellites. It includes and temporally extends the second version of the record (Karlsson et al., 2016; CLARA-A2 DOI:10.5676/EUM_SAF_CM/CLARA_AVHRR/V002) now providing data from 1982/01 to 2019/06, i.e., for 37.5 years. Original visible radiances were inter-calibrated and homogenised, using MODIS data as a reference, before applying the various parameter retrievals. The inter-calibration was based on an original method introduced by Heidinger et al. (2010) which was updated (MODIS Collection 6) and extended. CLARA-A2.1 features a range of cloud products: cloud mask, cloud top temperature/pressure/height, cloud thermodynamic phase, and (for liquid and ice clouds separately) cloud optical thickness, particle effective radius and cloud water path. Cloud products are available as monthly and daily averages and also as daily resampled global products (Level 2b) for individual satellites. Cloud parameter results are also presented as multi-parameter distributions (i.e., joint frequency histograms of cloud optical thickness, cloud top pressure and cloud phase) for daytime conditions. Surface albedo is presented as monthly and pentad (5 day) averages of the broadband black-sky albedo and is derived using all available data during the studied period. Surface radiation products are provided as monthly averages for the downwelling shortwave (including also daily averages) and the down- and upwelling longwave components. The monthly and daily averages are available on a 0.25°x0.25° global grid. Surface albedo and cloud products are also provided in two equal area grids with a resolution of 25 km x 25 km covering the polar regions. Daily resampled cloud products (level 2b) are provided in a global grid with a resolution of 0.05°x0.05°. For the latter, also a probabilistic cloud mask is added as an experimental product. A summary of the CLARA-A2.1 characteristics and a comprehensive evaluation of the data are available through a comprehensive set of documentations documents including user guides and, algorithm descriptions.