Type: Datasets

Forest and lake from space

Theme 5 – Cryosphere and Polar Oceans – Ice Sheet Dynamics: Jakobshavn Glacier Calving front – SAR backscatter images

This dataset has been produced as part of the Theme 5 (Cryosphere and Polar Oceans) in the National Centre for Earth Observation which aims to use new EO data to quantify changes in the mass balance of the cryosphere and to develop new models to represent the relevant processes in coupled climate prediction models. This dataset holds timeseries of Greenland glacier calving front fluctuations as maps and backscatter intensity images for the period March-July 2011. The dataset consists of 38 SAR backscatter images acquired every 3 days between the 12th March and 1st July 2011 during the ERS-2 3-day campaign.

Ocean waves from above

Theme 5 (Cryosphere and Polar Oceans) Sea Ice Elevation and Thickness and Ice Sheet Elevation Change: ENVISAT Radar Altimeter 2 (RA-2) 5-year Time Series (2002-2008) of Ice Thickness data

Theme 5 – Cryosphere and Polar Oceans – of the National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) is aimed at resolving uncertainties in future climate and sea-level arising from behaviour of the cryosphere. Under this theme, 5 year time series Ice thickness data used by Katharine Giles, Seymour Laxon and Andy Ridout in their paper “Circumpolar thinning of Arctic sea ice following the 2007 record ice extent minimum” are presented.

Forest and lake from space

Theme 5 – Cryosphere and Polar Oceans – Ice Sheet Dynamics: Jakobshavn Glacier Velocity Maps

This dataset has been produced as part of the Theme 5 (Cryosphere and Polar Oceans) in the National Centre for Earth Observation which aims to use new EO data to quantify changes in the mass balance of the cryosphere and to develop new models to represent the relevant processes in coupled climate prediction models. This dataset holds timeseries of Greenland glacier velocity fluctuations as maps for the period March-July 2011. The 37 velocity maps were derived from SAR data acquired during the 2011 ERS-2 3-day campaign. The velocity maps are 3-day velocity averages and are given in meters per year (m/y) (magnitude values).

Forest and lake from space

Posterior South American monthly mean surface flux of methane (2010-2018) produced using the INVICAT 4D-Var inverse model.

This data set consist of a single file which contains a set of optimised global surface fluxes of methane (CH4), produced through variational inverse methods using the TOMCAT chemical transport model, and the INVICAT inverse transport model. These surface fluxes are produced as monthly mean values on the (approximately) 5.6-degree horizontal model grid. The associated uncertainty for the flux from each grid cell is also included. The fluxes and uncertainties are global and cover the period Jan 2010 – Dec 2018.

Clouds and atmosphere from space

GOME: Vertical Profiles of Ozone and other Trace Gases Ozone profiles Version 2.1

This dataset contains version 2.1 ozone profiles derived by the Remote Sensing Group (RSG) at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Oxfordshire, UK, as part of the National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO). These were derived from radiances measured by the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) on-board ERS-2. The collection also includes total column ozone, column BrO, and column NO2 as well as cloud heights derived from the Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR), which are included to aid interpretation of the ozone profiles.

Ocean waves from above

Global Ocean Lagrangian Trajectories based on AVISO velocities, v2.2

The National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) Long Term Science Single Centre (LTSS) Global Ocean Lagrangian Trajectories (OLTraj) provide 30-day forward and backward Lagrangian trajectories based on AVISO (Satellite Altimetry Data project) surface velocities. Each trajectory represents the path that a water mass would move along starting at a given pixel and a given day. OLTraj can be thus used to implement analyses of oceanic data in a Lagrangian framework. The purpose of OLTraj is to allow non-specialists to conduct Lagrangian analyses of surface ocean data. The dataset has global coverage and spans 1998-2019 with a daily temporal resolution.

Retrieved sulfur dioxide column amounts and heights from the IASI instrument v1.0

This dataset was used to study the large plume of SO2 from the April 2021 eruption of La Soufrière on St Vincent in the Eastern Caribbean. The data has been produced by the Earth Observation Data Group at the University of Oxford, as part of the NERC Centre for the Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics (COMET).

Forest and lake from space

GloboLakes: high-resolution global limnology dataset V1.0

These data are high-resolution datasets related to in-land water for limnology (study of in-land waters) and remote sensing applications. This includes: distance-to-land, distance-to-water, water-body identifier and lake-centre co-ordinates on a high-resolution grid, produced by the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading. Data was derived using the ESA CCI Land Cover Map. The lake identifiers (IDs) are from the Global Lakes and Wetlands Database (GLWD), and lake centres are defined for in-land waters for which GLWD IDs were determined. The new datasets therefore link recent lake/reservoir/wetlands extent to the GLWD, together with a set of coordinates which locates unambiguously the water bodies in the database.

Clouds and atmosphere from space

Cloud Index retrievals from MIPAS ENVISAT L1B using MIPclouds algorithm

This data set contains retrievals from Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding on Envisat (MIPAS-ENVISAT) cloud and aerosol and contains information on derived cloud-top height (km), cloud-top temperature (K), cloud extinction (cm-1), with uncertainties. It also includes the measured radiance in the three cloud microwindow bands (832.0-834.4 cm-1, 1232.3-1234.4 cm-1, 1973.0-1983.0 cm-1), with noise equivalent spectral radiance values. Cloud index values are used to distinguish different clouds types based on the index value.

Clouds and atmosphere from space

Solar-induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence from GOSAT’s TANSO-FTS by the University of Leicester, V3.0

Solar-induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence (SIF) data created from the Greenhouse Gas Observing Satellite (GOSAT) Level 1B data using an adapted version of the University of Leicester Full-Physics retrieval scheme (UoL-FP). These dataset contains both Level 2 and Level 3 S-polarised SIF. The Level 2 data are in daily files and are not averaged, whilst the Level 3 data are averaged spatially and temporally on both a monthly and weekly timescale.

Forest and lake from space

NCEO Kenya forest aboveground biomass map 2015 v21.0

The NCEO Kenya forest aboveground biomass map shows aboveground woody biomass (AGB) in Kenyan forests. Forest areas include vegetated wetlands and wooded grassland for the year 2015. The map was generated by combining field inventory plots (KFS) with Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS-2), Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR-2) and multispectral optical data (NASA Landsat 8), by means of a Random Forests algorithm within a k-Fold calibration/validation framework. These data were produced by the National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO), University of Leicester, in collaboration with the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) with funding from the NCEO ODA Programme.

Ocean waves from above

NCEO Particulate Organic Carbon estimates from quality-controlled BGC-Argo data, V1.0

This is an in-situ dataset of estimates of particulate organic carbon (POC) based on all the current (2021-09-22) profiles of optical backscattering (BBP) collected by (BGC)Biogeochemical-Argo floats. The dataset covers the upper 2000 dbars of the water column (continuous profiles have been binned in 41 vertical bins). The dataset was produced by first devising a new set of automatic tests to quality control the large BBP dataset available (>31M records over >130k profiles). The QCed BBP was then converted into POC using an empirical algorithm (average of the POC: BBP slopes of Cetinic et al., 2012).

Ocean waves from above

Improved high-resolution ocean reanalysis of Met Office GloSea5 data using the simple smoother algorithm

The dataset is a Global ¼° 0-2000m ocean reanalysis for June 2016, providing temperature and salinity data. The product is based on Met Office GloSea5 reanalysis (Blockley et al. 2014), with the simple smoother algorithm applied to improve the original reanalysis. The simple smoother is designed for smooth data adjustments in sequentially generated reanalysis products by utilizing knowledge of future assimilation increments. A decay time parameter is applied to the smoother increments to account for memory decay timescales in the ocean.

Clouds and atmosphere from space

RAL extended Infrared Microwave Sounder (IMS) retrievals of atmospheric and surface properties: subset of four selected months in 2018 from Suomi-NPP, v1

The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) extended Infrared Microwave Sounder (IMS) data set retrieves vertical profiles of temperature, water vapour (H2O), ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), together with cloud optical depth and effective radius and column amounds of minor gases, dust and sulfuric acid aerosol optical depth. The scheme also provides surface temperature and surface spectral emissivity spanning infrared and microwave.

Contact: Richard Siddans (NCEO/RAL)

Clouds and atmosphere from space

Obs4MIPs: Monthly-mean diurnal cycle of top of atmosphere outgoing shortwave radiation from the GERB instrument (GERB-HR-ED01-1-1 rsut 1hrCM), v20231221

This dataset contains top of atmosphere (TOA) outgoing shortwave radiation from the Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget (GERB) instrument on board the Meteosat-9 geostationary satellite, for the period from May 2007 until December 2012. In this dataset (labelled ‘GERB-HR-ED01-1-1 rsut 1hrCM’), the data provided consist of monthly-mean diurnal cycles, with each day resolved into 1-hour means. Data are only available for eight months of each year (January, February, May, June, July, August, November and December), due to operational constraints of the GERB instrument.
Clouds and atmosphere from space

Obs4MIPs: Monthly-mean diurnal cycle of top of atmosphere outgoing longwave radiation from the GERB instrument (GERB-HR-ED01-1-1 rlut 1hrCM), v20231221

This dataset contains top of atmosphere (TOA) outgoing longwave radiation from the Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget (GERB) instrument on board the Meteosat-9 geostationary satellite, for the period from May 2007 until December 2012. In this dataset (labelled ‘GERB-HR-ED01-1-1 rlut 1hrCM’), the data provided consist of monthly-mean diurnal cycles, with each day resolved into 1-hour means. Data are only available for eight months of each year (January, February, May, June, July, August, November and December), due to operational constraints of the GERB instrument.

Clouds and atmosphere from space

Solar-induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence from GOSAT’s TANSO-FTS by the University of Leicester (v3.0)

Solar-induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence (SIF) data created from the Greenhouse Gas Observing Satellite (GOSAT) Level 1B data using an adapted version of the University of Leicester Full-Physics retrieval scheme (UoL-FP). These dataset contains both Level 2 and Level 3 S-polarised SIF. The Level 2 data are in daily files and are not averaged, whilst the Level 3 data are averaged spatially and temporally on both a monthly and weekly timescale.

Clouds and atmosphere from space

STFC RAL methane retrievals from IASI on board MetOp-B, version 2.0

This Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) methane dataset contains height-resolved and column-averaged volume mixing ratios of atmospheric methane (CH4) retrieved from the IASI instrument on the MetOp-B satellite. It also includes column-averaged water vapour (H2O), a scale factor for the HDO (water vapour isotopologue) volume mixing ratio profile, surface temperature, effective cloud fraction, effective cloud-top pressure and scale factors for two systematic residual spectra which are jointly retrieved from the spectral range 1232.25-1290.00 cm-1. This dataset was produced by Version 2.0 of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory’s (RAL’s) IASI optimal estimation scheme to retrieve methane, which takes as input temperature and water vapour profiles and surface spectral emissivity pre-retrieved by RAL’s Infrared and Microwave Scheme applied to IASI, MHS and AMSU-A on MetOp-B. The dataset additionally contains selected a priori values and uncertainties adopted in the optimal estimation scheme and retrieval output diagnostics such as the retrieval cost and the averaging kernels.
Ocean waves from above

BICEP / NCEO: Monthly global Particulate Organic Carbon (POC), between 1997-2020 at 4 km resolution (produced from the Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative v5.0 dataset)

The BICEP/NCEO: Monthly global Particulate Organic Carbon (POC) v5 datasets contain POC concentrations (mg m^-3) with per pixel uncertainties estimates gridded on both geographic and sinusoidal projections at 4 km spatial resolution for the period of 1997 to 2020. The POC products were generated as part of the European Space Agency (ESA) Biological Pump and Carbon Exchange Processes (BICEP) project with support from the National Centre of Earth Observation (NCEO).