Search

The extension of the ERA5 reanalysis back to 1950 supplements the previously published segment covering 1979 to the present. It features the assimilation of additional conventional observations, as well as improved use of early satellite data. The number of observations assimilated increases from 53,000 per day in early 1950 to 570,000 per day by the end of 1978. Accordingly, the quality of the reanalysis improves throughout the period, generally joining seamlessly with the segment covering 1979 to the present. The fidelity of the extension is illustrated by the accurate depiction of the North Sea storm of 1953, and the events leading to the first discovery of sudden stratospheric warmings in 1952. Time series of ERA5 global surface temperature anomalies show temperatures to be relatively stable from 1950 until the late 1970s, in agreement with the other contemporary full-input reanalysis covering this period and with independent data sets, although there are significant differences in the accuracy of representing specific regions, Europe being well represented in the early period but Australia less so. The variability of ERA5 precipitation from month to month agrees well with observations for all continents, with correlations above 90% for most of Europe and generally in excess of 70% for North America, Asia and Australia. The evolution of upper air temperatures, humidities and winds shows smoothly varying behaviour, including tropospheric warming and stratospheric cooling, modulated by volcanic eruptions. The Quasi-Biennial Oscillation is well represented throughout. Aspects to be improved upon in future reanalyses include the assimilation of tropical cyclone data, the spin-up of soil moisture and stratospheric humidity, and the representation of surface temperatures over Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), ECMWF is producing the ERA5 reanalysis which, once completed, will embody a detailed record of the global atmosphere, land surface and ocean waves from 1950 onwards. This new reanalysis replaces the ERA‐Interim reanalysis (spanning 1979 onwards) which was started in 2006. ERA5 is based on the Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) Cy41r2 which was operational in 2016. ERA5 thus benefits from a decade of developments in model physics, core dynamics and data assimilation. In addition to a significantly enhanced horizontal resolution of 31 km, compared to 80 km for ERA‐Interim, ERA5 has hourly output throughout, and an uncertainty estimate from an ensemble (3‐hourly at half the horizontal resolution). This paper describes the general set‐up of ERA5, as well as a basic evaluation of characteristics and performance, with a focus on the dataset from 1979 onwards which is currently publicly available. Re‐forecasts from ERA5 analyses show a gain of up to one day in skill with respect to ERA‐Interim. Comparison with radiosonde and PILOT data prior to assimilation shows an improved fit for temperature, wind and humidity in the troposphere, but not the stratosphere. A comparison with independent buoy data shows a much improved fit for ocean wave height. The uncertainty estimate reflects the evolution of the observing systems used in ERA5. The enhanced temporal and spatial resolution allows for a detailed evolution of weather systems. For precipitation, global‐mean correlation with monthly‐mean GPCP data is increased from 67% to 77%. In general, low‐frequency variability is found to be well represented and from 10 hPa downwards general patterns of anomalies in temperature match those from the ERA‐Interim, MERRA‐2 and JRA‐55 reanalyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we derive the environmental lapse rate (ELR) from vertical profiles of temperature in the lower troposphere, applying it to downscale air temperature of the new European Centre For Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis ERA5, which replaces ERA‐Interim (ERAI). We focus over the western U.S. region, a data‐rich area with observations of daily maximum and minimum temperature (Global Historical Climatology Network) and snow depth and soil temperature. Observations indicate an ELR of −4.5 K·km−1 in the region, lower than the commonly used −6.5 K·km−1. ERA5 ELR agrees with the observational estimates, with some overestimation in winter and limitations in the diurnal variability. The elevation correction of ERA5 temperature using different ELR showed the benefits of deriving ELR fields from ERA5 vertical profiles, when compared with a constant ELR. Simulations with the ECMWF land surface model, at 9‐km resolution, driven by ERA5 using different ELR corrections showed the added value of the methodology, but the impact of different ELR corrections is limited. However, the validity of the downscaling method in reducing temperature to station altitude suggests that there is sufficient generality for application at kilometer and subkilometer resolutions. By comparing the estimated representativity errors of observations with reanalysis, the improvements from ERAI to ERA5 are mainly visible in the random component of the error. Large systematic biases remain, which require further attention from the modeling and data assimilation, and limit the potential benefits of ELR corrections. Key Points: Environmental lapse rate derived from atmospheric reanalysis vertical profiles agrees with observational estimatesSurface downscaling outperforms ERA5, but the impact of different ELR corrections to the driving data is reducedSystematic biases in ERA5 near‐surface temperature require further efforts from modeling and data assimilation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]