Datasets

This dataset provides monthly and zonally averaged tropospheric humidity profiles derived from globally distributed GPS radio occultation (RO) measurements from EUMETSAT's Metop polar-orbiting satellites. Humidity plays an important role in the Earth's climate system, due to the strong greenhouse effect of water vapour but also for its role in the global energy transport, vertically in the atmosphere and horizontally between different geographical regions.

Upper Tropospheric Humidity (UTH) is of key importance to the Earth’s greenhouse effect and understanding of climate change. It is considered an Essential Climate Variable (ECV) because it controls key atmospheric processes, including those involved in water vapour and cloud feedbacks, that can amplify the climate system’s response to increases in other greenhouse gases. The Upper Tropospheric Humidity is defined as the integrated amount of Water Vapour in the atmospheric layer between ~500 hPa and ~200 hPa.

Cloud properties directly influence the state of the Earth´s upper-air atmosphere. Clouds have an effect on weather and climate through their contribution to the Earth’s water cycle and impact on the Earth’s energy budget. They impact atmospheric motions on a range of spatial and temporal scales and contribute to changes in the atmospheric composition.

This dataset provides global estimates of precipitation based on satellite observations. Precipitation is the main component of water transport from the atmosphere to the Earth’s surface within the hydrological cycle. It varies strongly, depending on geographical location, season, synopsis, and other meteorological factors. The supply with freshwater through precipitation is vital for many subsystems of the climate and the environment, but there are also hazards related to extensive precipitation or the lack of precipitation.

The Earth’s Radiation Budget (ERB) represents the overall balance between incoming and outgoing radiant energy at the Earth’s top-of-the-atmosphere. This Essential Climate Variable is the primary forcing of the climate system and is therefore a fundamental quantity to be monitored to understand the Earth’s climate and its variability. The Earth’s Radiation Budget comprises of the quantification of the incoming radiation from the Sun and the outgoing reflected shortwave and emitted longwave radiation.

Water vapour is has been recognised as an Essential Climate Variable as it provides the basis for all cloud formation and physics and furthermore influences the Earth's heat budget due to its high absorbance of long and short-wave radiation. Total column water vapour (TCWV) is a measure of the integrated water vapour content of the atmosphere.
This catalogue entry provides the TCWV data product usually called Hamburg Ocean Atmosphere Parameters and Fluxes from Satellite Data (HOAPS).

The Surface Radiation Budget (SRB) represents the balance between the heating of the Earth’s surface through absorption of incoming solar radiation and cooling through the emission of infra-red radiation, which is a fundamental component of the surface energy budget. Small changes in the surface radiation budget can lead to large climatological responses, which makes a permanent and precise monitoring indispensable.