Global Climate Animations

The maps on this page are based on data from the ERA5 and ERA5-Land Reanalysis data sets, were drawn using the NCAR Command Language (NCL) and animated using HAnis – the HTML5 Image AnimationS webapp. See the acknowledgments below. The data plotted are 1991-2020 long-term means. The resolution of the data behind the ERA5 global maps is 0.25 degrees, and 0.1 degrees for the ERA5-Land North America and CONUS maps. See the elevation maps below.

Global energy balance

Radiative components – Top of the Atmosphere (TOA)
[Incident SW] [TOA SW up] [TOA net SW] [TOA down | TOA up | TOA net | Sfc net]

Non-radiative components
[sensible heat flux] [latent heat flux] [substrate heat flux/change in storage] [all]

Energy-balance components follow the Sellers (1968) sign convention:

radiative fluxes (e.g. net radiation): energy flow toward the surface is positive (orange); energy flow away is negative (blue);
non-radiative fluxes (e.g. latent heat flux): energy flow from the surface toward the atmosphere is positive (orange); energy flow from the atmosphere toward the surface is negative (blue);
substrate heat flux/change in storage: energy flow from the subsurface to the atmosphere (i.e. out of storage) is positive (orange); energy flow from the surface toward the subsurface (i.e. into storage) is negative (blue).)

Temperature

[2m air temperature] [2m air temperature (polar)] [Surface net radiation & 2m air temp]
[Skin temperature] [2m air temperature - Skin temperature]

Atmospheric circulation & winds

Surface
[SLP & 10m winds] [SLP & 10m winds (polar)]
[U-component 10 m wind] [V-component 10 m wind] [10 m wind speed]
[U-component 10 m wind (polar)] [V-component 10 m wind (polar)] [10 m wind speed (polar)]

Upper-level
[500 hPa hgt & wind] [500 hPa hgt & wind (polar)] [500 hPa vertical velocity]
[U-component 300 hPa wind] [V-component 300 hPa wind] [300 hPa wind speed]
[U-component 300 hPa wind (polar)] [V-component 300 hPa wind (polar)] [300 hPa wind speed (polar)]

Meridional cross sections
[Zonal wind & meridional mass streamfunction] [Zonal wind and meridional mass streamfunction – annual average]
[Zonal wind & meridional mass streamfunction & vectors] [Zonal wind and meridional mass streamfunction & vectors – annual average]
[Zonal & meridional wind] [Zonal & meridional wind – annual average]

Streamlines
[Surface (10m)] [500 hPa] [300 hPa]
[Surface (10m) (polar)] [500 hPa (polar)] [300 hPa (polar)]

Vertical velocity (omega) and the U and V components of the wind use the following sign convention:

omega, sinking is positive (orange), rising is negative (blue)
U component, positive toward the east (blue), negative toward the west (red);
V component, positive toward the north (blue), negative toward the south (red)

Energy

Atmospheric energy fluxes
[Total energy flux] [Heat flux] [Latent heat flux] [Kinetic energy flux] [all] (note the different scales)

Atmospheric moisture

Moisture flux and water vapor
[Moisture-flux divergence] [Vertically integrated moisture flux] [vertically integrated water vapor] [all]
[air temperature and specific humidity meridional cross section] [below 100 hPa]

Global water balance/precipitation/snow

Precipitation controls
[vertically integrated water vapor] [500 hPa vertical velocity] [total cloud cover] [precipitation rate] [all]

Precipitation and evaporation
[precipitation rate] [evaporation rate] [P - E] [all]

Surface water balance
[precipitation rate] [evaporation rate] [runoff rate] [ΔS] [all]

Snow
[snowfall rate] [snowmelt rate] [snow depth] [all]
[precipitation rate] [rainfall rate] [snowfall rate] [snow depth] [all]

[snowfall rate] [snowmelt rate] [snow depth] [all] (poleward of 30° N and S)
[precipitation rate] [rainfall rate] [snowfall rate] [snow depth] [all]

ERA5-Land high-resolution maps for North America

These maps show ERA5-Land data for selected variables. The ERA5-Land data are on a 0.10-degree grid, and for comparison, ERA5 data on the 0.25-degree are included.

North America
[2m air temperature, ERA5-Land] [2m air temperature, ERA5]
[precipitation rate, ERA5-Land] [precipitation rate, ERA5]

CONUS
[2m air temperature, ERA5-Land] [2m air temperature, ERA5]
[precipitation rate, ERA5-Land] [precipitation rate, ERA5]

Reanalysis Grid-point Elevations

The scale of the climatic features that can be resolved by the reanalysis data depends on the resolution of the models. For the ERA5 data, the resolution is 0.25 degrees, and for the ERA5-Land data, the resolution is 0.10 degrees. In both cases, real “landscape-scale” features that are of smaller spatial scale will not be resolved by the data, or visible on the maps on this page.

ERA5 (0.25-degree)
[Globe] [Globe b&w] [North America] [North America b&w] [CONUS] [CONUS b&w]

ERA5-Land (0.25-degree) [Globe] [Globe b&w] [North America] [North America b&w] [CONUS] [CONUS b&w]

Acknowledgements

Data sources

The global data plotted here are from the ECMWF fifth-generation ERA5 Reanalysis: [ERA5 monthly averaged data on pressure levels from 1979 to present] and [ERA5 monthly averaged data on single levels from 1979 to present]

The results contain modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2021. Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use that may be made of the Copernicus information or data it contains.

Hersbach, H., Bell, B., Berrisford, P., Biavati, G., Horányi, A., Muñoz Sabater, J., Nicolas, J., Peubey, C., Radu, R., Rozum, I., Schepers, D., Simmons, A., Soci, C., Dee, D., Thépaut, J-N. (2019): ERA5 monthly averaged data on single levels from 1979 to present. Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store (CDS). (Accessed on 27-Dec-2021), [https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.f17050d7]

Hans Hersbach, Bill Bell, Paul Berrisford, Shoji Hirahara, András Horányi, Joaquín Muñoz-Sabater, Julien Nicolas, Carole Peubey, Raluca Radu, Dinand Schepers, Adrian Simmons, Cornel Soci, Saleh Abdalla, Xavier Abellan, Gianpaolo Balsamo, Peter Bechtold, Gionata Biavati, Jean Bidlot, Massimo Bonavita, Giovanna De Chiara, Per Dahlgren, Dick Dee, Michail Diamantakis, Rossana Dragani, Johannes Flemming, Richard Forbes, Manuel Fuentes, Alan Geer, Leo Haimberger, Sean Healy, Robin J. Hogan, Elías Hólm, Marta Janisková, Sarah Keeley, Patrick Laloyaux, Philippe Lopez, Cristina Lupu, Gabor Radnoti, Patricia de Rosnay, Iryna Rozum, Freja Vamborg, Sebastien Villaume, Jean-Noël Thépaut (2020) The ERA5 global reanalysis. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 146:1999-2049. [https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3803]

Regional data are from the ERA5-Land Reanalysis Data set: [ERA5-Land monthly averaged data from 1950 to present].

Muñoz Sabater, J., (2021): ERA5-Land monthly averaged data from 1950 to 1980. Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store (CDS). (Accessed on 11-Mar-2022), [https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.68d2bb30].

J. Muñoz-Sabater, Dutra, E., Agustí-Panareda, A., Albergel, C., Arduini, G., Balsamo, G., Boussetta, S., Choulga, M., Harrigan, S., Hersbach, H., Martens, B., Miralles, D. G., Piles, M., Rodríguez-Fernández, N. J., Zsoter, E., Buontempo, C., and Thépaut, J.-N.: ERA5-Land: A state-of-the-art global reanalysis dataset for land applications, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13:4349–4383, 2021. [https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4349-2021].

Maps

Maps were created using the NCAR Command Language (NCL) [https://www.ncl.ucar.edu] The NCAR Command Language (Version 6.6.2) [Software]. (2019). Boulder, Colorado: UCAR/NCAR/CISL/TDD. http://dx.doi.org/10.5065/D6WD3XH5

Shapefiles for the continental outlines and administrative units on the ERA5-Land maps were downloaded from Natural Earth [https://www.naturalearthdata.com]

Animations

The animations were created using HAnis – the HTML5 Image AnimationS webapp [https://www.ssec.wisc.edu/hanis/] by Tom Whittaker, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin–Madison.