Contributors: Marco Cucchi (B-Open), Vivien Mavel (B-Open), Chiara Cagnazzo (ECMWF), Marie-Louise John (ECMWF), Niclas Rieger (ECMWF)
Issued by: B-Open / Marco Cucchi
Issued Date: 12/12/2025
Ref: C3S2_420a_Provision_of_WFDE5_extension
Official reference number service contract: 2024/C3S2_420a_B-Open
The W5E5 dataset [1] was compiled to support the bias adjustment of climate input data for the impact assessments carried out in phase 3b of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP3b). It consists of 14 variables (see Table 1) with a daily temporal resolution on a regular longitude-latitude half-degree grid, with global spatial coverage. W5E5 is a merged dataset, which combines WFDE5 [2] data over land with ERA5 reanalysis [3] data over the ocean. In addition, it makes use of the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) data [3] for precipitation data rescaling.
W5E5 v3.0 is distributed through the C3S Climate Data Store as monthly files in netCDF format. It uses a full half-degree grid (720 × 360 grid boxes) covering the whole globe. See Table 2 for a summary of all the input datasets used for W5E5 v3.0, and Table 3 for a description of of the dataset's general attributes.
Table 1: W5E5 variables summary
Variable name | Description | Units | Time coverage |
mask | WFDE5-ERA5 mask | 1 | - |
orog | Surface Altitude | m | - |
sfcWind | Near-Surface Wind Speed | m s-1 | 1979-01-01 to 2024-12-31 |
tas | Near-Surface Air Temperature | K | 1979-01-01 to 2024-12-31 |
tasmax | Daily Maximum Near-Surface Air Temperature | K | 1979-01-01 to 2024-12-31 |
tasmin | Daily Minimum Near-Surface Air Temperature | K | 1979-01-01 to 2024-12-31 |
ps | Surface Air Pressure | Pa | 1979-01-01 to 2024-12-31 |
psl | Sea Level Pressure | Pa | 1979-01-01 to 2024-12-31 |
huss | Near-Surface Specific Humidity | kg kg-1 | 1979-01-01 to 2024-12-31 |
hurs | Near-Surface Relative Humidity | kg kg-1 | 1979-01-01 to 2024-12-31 |
rlds | Surface Downwelling Longwave Radiation | W m-2 | 1979-01-01 to 2024-12-31 |
rsds | Surface Downwelling Shortwave Radiation | W m-2 | 1979-01-01 to 2024-12-31 |
pr | Precipitation | kg m-2 s-1 | 1979-01-01 to 2020-12-31 |
prsn | Snowfall Flux | kg m-2 s-1 | 1979-01-01 to 2020-12-31 |
Table 2: Input dataset
Dataset | Summary | Variables used |
ERA5 | ECMWF reanalysis product |
|
WFDE5v3.0 | Near surface meteorological variables from 1979 to 2024 derived from bias-corrected reanalysis |
|
GPCPv2.3 | Global Precipitation Climatology Project data |
|
Table 3: W5E5 dataset general attributes
Dataset attribute | Details |
Horizontal coverage | Global |
Horizontal resolution | 0.5° x 0.5° |
Vertical coverage | Surface |
Temporal coverage | Depends on variable (see Table 2) |
Temporal resolution | Daily |
File format | netCDF |
Data type | Grid |
Versions | v3.0 |
The algorithms used for the generation of W5E5 v3.0 are identical to the ones used for the generation of previous versions v1.0 and v2.0, and are described at [1]. For the generation of W5E5 v3.0, a Python implementation of these algorithm has been developed and used, and is available for download in the "Documentation" tab of the dataset's CDS catalogue entry.
File names adhere to the following convention:
<var>_W5E5_<YYYYMM>_v<version>.nc,
where
<var>: variable name, as in Table 1
As an example, possible file names are:
Actual file content and dimensions size varies from month to month and depending on the variable, but the general file structure is constant and analogous to the following example:
netcdf tas_W5E5_201801_v3.0 {
dimensions:
lat = 360 ;
lon = 720 ;
time = 31 ;
variables:
double lat(lat) ;
lat:_FillValue = NaN ;
lat:long_name = "Latitude" ;
lat:standard_name = "latitude" ;
lat:units = "degrees_north" ;
lat:axis = "Y" ;
double lon(lon) ;
lon:_FillValue = NaN ;
lon:long_name = "Longitude" ;
lon:standard_name = "longitude" ;
lon:units = "degrees_east" ;
lon:axis = "X" ;
int64 time(time) ;
time:long_name = "Time" ;
time:standard_name = "time" ;
time:axis = "T" ;
time:units = "hours since 1900-01-01" ;
time:calendar = "proleptic_gregorian" ;
float tas(time, lat, lon) ;
tas:_FillValue = 1.e+20f ;
tas:units = "K" ;
tas:long_name = "Near-Surface Air Temperature" ;
tas:standard_name = "air_temperature" ;
// global attributes:
:title = "WFDE5 over land merged with ERA5 over the ocean (W5E5) version 3.0" ;
:institution = "Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) & European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) under Copernicus Climate Change Service" ;
:project = "Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project phase 3 (ISIMIP3)" ;
:contact = "ISIMIP cross-sectoral science team <info@isimip.org> <https://www.isimip.org>; ECMWF Support Portal <http://copernicus-support.ecmwf.int>" ;
:summary = "WFDE5 (with GPCC precipitation correction) over land merged with ERA5 (with GPCP precipitation correction) over the ocean for ISIMIP3" ;
:references = "Cucchi et al. (2020) <https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2097-2020> and Lange et al. (2021) <https://doi.org/10.48364/ISIMIP.342217> for W5E5; Weedon et al. (2014) <https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2014WR015638> and Cucchi et al. (2020) <https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2097-2020> for WFDE5; Hersbach et al. (2020) <https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/qj.3803> and Copernicus Climate Change Service Climate Data Store (2017) <https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/#!/home> for ERA5" ;
:version = "3.0" ;
:Conventions = "CF-1.7" ;
} |
The described dataset is distributed under the Licence to Use Copernicus Products. The corrections applied are based upon CRU TS 4.03, distributed under the Open Database License (ODbL), CRU TS 4.04, distributed under the Open Government Licence (OGL), and GPCCv2018/v2020, distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0).
If publishing using this dataset please cite [2], where a more detailed description of the dataset can be found.
[1] Lange, Stefan (2019): WFDE5 over land merged with ERA5 over the ocean (W5E5). V. 1.0. GFZ Data Services. https://doi.org/10.5880/pik.2019.023
[2] M. Cucchi, G. P. Weedon, A. Amici, N. Bellouin, S. Lange, H. M. Schmied, H. Hersbach, C. Buontempo, "WFDE5: bias-adjusted ERA5 reanalysis data for impact studies", Earth System Science Data, https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/12/2097/2020, 2020.
[3] Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), "ERA5: Fifth generation of ECMWF atmospheric reanalysis of the global climate", C3S Climate Data Store (CDS), 2017, https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/.
This document has been produced in the context of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). The activities leading to these results have been contracted by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, operator of C3S on behalf of the European Union (Delegation Agreement signed on 11/11/2014 and Contribution Agreement signed on 22/07/2021). All information in this document is provided "as is" and no guarantee or warranty is given that the information is fit for any particular purpose. The users thereof use the information at their sole risk and liability. For the avoidance of all doubt , the European Commission and the European Centre for Medium - Range Weather Forecasts have no liability in respect of this document, which is merely representing the author's view. |
Related articles appear here based on the labels you select. Click to edit the macro and add or change labels.