This dataset metadata was generated with the use of AI and reviewed by an expert. If you see any mistakes please file an issue on GitHub at https://github.com/earthcube/communityCollections/issues.
TerraClimate: Monthly Climate and Climatic Water Balance for Global Terrestrial Surfaces
TerraClimate is a dataset of monthly climate and climatic water balance for global terrestrial land surfaces at ~4-km (1/24°) spatial resolution. TerraClimate v1.1 provides time-varying monthly climate fields from 1950-present using climatically aided interpolation: high-resolution climatological normals from WorldClim are combined with monthly anomalies from ERA5 reanalysis. TerraClimate also produces monthly surface water balance variables using a modified Thornthwaite-Mather climatic water-balance model incorporating precipitation, temperature, reference evapotranspiration, and soil water capacity. Additional future layers are provided for +2°C and +4°C global mean temperature futures, plus a counterfactual climate scenario, for pseudo-years 1950-2025. Data are distributed primarily as compressed NetCDF (NetCDF4) via THREDDS/OPeNDAP and related web services and are also available as a Google Earth Engine image collection.
Primary THREDDS hosting and web services for TerraClimate NetCDF distributions.
CC0 1.0 Universal (Public Domain Dedication)
Reference evapotranspiration (ASCE Penman–Monteith)
Soil moisture (total column, end of month)
Climatically aided interpolation using high-resolution climatological normals (WorldClim) combined with monthly anomalies from ERA5 reanalysis
Modified Thornthwaite–Mather climatic water-balance model for derived water-balance variables
TerraClimate THREDDS catalog (all data, summaries, climatologies, and +2°C/+4°C scenarios)
Browsable THREDDS catalog containing annual/monthly NetCDF files and aggregated products, including summaries, climatologies, and climate futures (+2°C and +4°C).
TerraClimate THREDDS aggregated catalog (monthly aggregations by variable)
THREDDS aggregated catalogs providing service endpoints (OPeNDAP/NetCDF Subset/NCSS/WMS/WCS) for monthly aggregations by variable.
Example OP(e)NDAP access endpoint (aggregated monthly variable file)
Example OPeNDAP endpoint for an aggregated monthly variable NetCDF. Replace the variable/file identifier as needed for other variables and products available in the THREDDS aggregated catalog.
Google Earth Engine ImageCollection: IDAHO_EPSCOR/TERRACLIMATE
TerraClimate is also available as a Google Earth Engine ImageCollection for cloud-based analysis and visualization.
TerraClimate, a high-resolution global dataset of monthly climate and climatic water balance from 1958–2015