The African Easterly Jet (AEJ) is part of a climatic system which is of critical importance to African and global weather and climate, but is poorly observed and not well represented in model analyses. For the JET2000 project the Met Office Met Research flight (MRF) aircraft performed four flights, involving transects along and across the jet and the baroclinic zone, to make observations of unprecedented resolution for this part of the world. 110 dropsondes were dropped along the fight path. The data includes detailed synoptic observations of the basic state over mainland West Africa, and detailed synoptic observations of the African Easterly Waves (AEW) over mainland tropical West Africa.

The Cloud_cci AVHRR-PMv3 dataset (covering 1982-2016) was generated within the Cloud_cci project, which was funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of the ESA Climate Change Initiative (CCI) programme (Contract No.: 4000109870/13/I-NB). This dataset is one of the 6 datasets generated in Cloud_cci; all of them being based on passive-imager satellite measurements. This dataset is based on measurements from AVHRR (onboard the NOAA-7, NOAA-9, NOAA-11, NOAA-14, NOAA-16, NOAA-18, NOAA-19 satellites) and contains a variety of cloud properties which were derived employing the Community Cloud retrieval for Climate (CC4CL; Sus et al., 2018; McGarragh et al., 2018) retrieval framework. The core cloud properties contained in the Cloud_cci AVHRR-PMv3 dataset are cloud mask/fraction, cloud phase, cloud top pressure/height/temperature, cloud optical thickness, cloud effective radius and cloud liquid/ice water path. Spectral cloud albedo is also included as experimental product. The cloud properties are available at different processing levels: This particular dataset contains Level-3C (monthly averages and histograms) data, while Level-3U (globally gridded, unaveraged data fields) is also available as a separate dataset. Pixel-based uncertainty estimates come along with all properties and have been propagated into the Level-3C data. The data in this dataset are a subset of the AVHRR-PM L3C / L3U cloud products version 3.0 dataset produced by the ESA Cloud_cci project available from https://dx.doi.org/10.5676/DWD/ESA_Cloud_cci/AVHRR-PM/V003. To cite the full dataset, please use the following citation: Stengel, Martin; Sus, Oliver; Stapelberg, Stefan; Finkensieper, Stephan; Würzler, Benjamin; Philipp, Daniel; Hollmann, Rainer; Poulsen, Caroline (2019): ESA Cloud Climate Change Initiative (ESA Cloud_cci) data: Cloud_cci AVHRR-PM L3C/L3U CLD_PRODUCTS v3.0, Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), DOI:10.5676/DWD/ESA_Cloud_cci/AVHRR-PM/V003.

This dataset contains Daily Snow Cover Fraction (snow on ground) from AVHRR, produced by the Snow project of the ESA Climate Change Initiative programme. Snow cover fraction on ground (SCFG) indicates the area of snow observed from space over land surfaces, in forested areas corrected for the transmissivity of the forest canopy. The SCFG is given in percentage (%) per pixel. The global SCFG product is available at about 5 km pixel size for all land areas, excluding Antarctica and Greenland ice sheets. The coastal zones of Greenland are included. The SCFG time series provides daily products for the period 1982-2019. The product is based on medium resolution optical satellite data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). Clouds are masked using the Cloud CCI cloud v3.0 mask product. The retrieval method of the snow_cci SCFG product from AVHRR data has been further developed and improved based on the ESA GlobSnow approach described by Metsämäki et al. (2015) and complemented with a pre-classification module. All cloud free pixels are then used for the snow extent mapping, using spectral bands centred at about 630 nm and 1.61 µm (channel 3a or the reflective part of channel 3b), and an emissive band centred at about 10.8 µm. The snow_cci snow cover mapping algorithm is a two-step approach: first, a strict pre-classification is applied to identify all cloud free pixels which are certainly snow free. For all remaining pixels, the snow_cci SCFG retrieval method is applied. The following auxiliary data sets are used for product generation: i) ESA CCI Land Cover from 2000; water bodies and permanent snow and ice areas are masked based on this dataset. Both classes were separately aggregated to the pixel spacing of the SCF product. Water areas are masked if more than 50 percent of the pixel is classified as water, permanent snow and ice areas are masked if more than 50 percent are identified as such areas in the aggregated map; ii) Forest canopy transmissivity map; this layer is based on the tree cover classes of the ESA CCI Land Cover 2000 data set and the tree cover density map from Landsat data for the year 2000 (Hansen et al., Science, 2013, DOI: 10.1126/science.1244693). This layer is used to apply a forest canopy correction and estimate in forested areas the fractional snow cover on ground. The SCFG product is aimed to serve the needs of users working in cryosphere and climate research and monitoring activities, including the detection of variability and trends, climate modelling and aspects of hydrology, meteorology, and biology. The Remote Sensing Research Group of the University of Bern is responsible for the SCFG product development and generation. ENVEO developed and prepared all auxiliary data sets used for the product generation. The SCFG AVHRR product comprises one longer data gap of 92 between November 1994 and January 1995, and 16 individual daily gaps, resulting in a 99% data coverage over the entire study period of 38 years.

This dataset contains Daily Snow Cover Fraction of viewable snow from AVHRR, produced by the Snow project of the ESA Climate Change Initiative programme. Snow cover fraction viewable (SCFV) indicates the area of snow viewable from space over land surfaces. In forested areas this refers to snow viewable on top of the forest canopy. The SCFV is given in percentage (%) per pixel. The global SCFV product is available at about 5 km pixel size for all land areas, excluding Antarctica and Greenland ice sheets. The coastal zones of Greenland are included. The SCFV time series provides daily products for the period 1982-2019. The product is based on medium resolution optical satellite data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). Clouds are masked using the Cloud CCI cloud v3.0 mask product. The retrieval method of the snow_cci SCFV product from AVHRR data has been further developed and improved based on the ESA GlobSnow approach described by Metsämäki et al. (2015) and complemented with a pre-classification module. All cloud free pixels are then used for the snow extent mapping, using spectral bands centred at about 630 nm and 1.61 µm (channel 3a or the reflective part of channel 3b), and an emissive band centred at about 10.8 µm. The snow_cci snow cover mapping algorithm is a two-step approach: first, a strict pre-classification is applied to identify all cloud free pixels which are certainly snow free. For all remaining pixels, the snow_cci SCFV retrieval method is applied. The following auxiliary data set is used for product generation: ESA CCI Land Cover from 2000; water bodies and permanent snow and ice areas are masked based on this dataset. Both classes were separately aggregated to the pixel spacing of the SCF product. Water areas are masked if more than 50 percent of the pixel is classified as water, permanent snow and ice areas are masked if more than 50 percent are identified as such areas in the aggregated map. The SCFV product is aimed to serve the needs for users working in the cryosphere and climate research and monitoring activities, including the detection of variability and trends, climate modelling and aspects of hydrology, meteorology and biology. The Remote Sensing Research Group of the University of Bern is responsible for the SCFV product development and generation. ENVEO developed and prepared all auxiliary data sets used for the product generation. The SCFV AVHRR product comprises one longer data gap of 92 between November 1994 and January 1995, and 16 individual daily gaps, resulting in a 99% data coverage over the entire study period of 38 years.

This v2.1 SST_cci Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Level 2 Preprocessed (L2P) Climate Data Record (CDR) consists of stable, low-bias sea surface temperature (SST) data from the AVHRR series of satellite instruments. It covers the period between 08/1981 and 12/2016. This L2P product provides these SST data on the original satellite swath with a single orbit of data per file. The dataset has been produced as part of the European Space Agency (ESA) Climate Change Initiative Sea Surface Temperature project(ESA SST_cci). The data products from SST_cci accurately map the surface temperature of the global oceans over the period 1981 to 2016 using observations from many satellites. The data provide independently quantified SSTs to a quality suitable for climate research. This CDR Version 2.1 product supercedes the CDR Version 2.0 product. Data are made freely and openly available under a Creative Commons License by Attribution (CC By 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . When citing this dataset please also cite the associated data paper: Merchant, C.J., Embury, O., Bulgin, C.E., Block T., Corlett, G.K., Fiedler, E., Good, S.A., Mittaz, J., Rayner, N.A., Berry, D., Eastwood, S., Taylor, M., Tsushima, Y., Waterfall, A., Wilson, R., Donlon, C. Satellite-based time-series of sea-surface temperature since 1981 for climate applications, Scientific Data 6:223 (2019). http://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-019-0236-x

The ESA Fire Disturbance Climate Change Initiative (CCI) project has produced maps of global burned area derived from satellite observations. The AVHRR - LTDR Pixel v1.1 product described here contains gridded data of global burned area derived from spectral information from the AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) Land Long Term Data Record (LTDR) v5 dataset produced by NASA. The dataset provides monthly information on global burned area at 0.05-degree spatial resolution (the resolution of the AVHRR-LTDR input data) from 1982 to 2018. The year 1994 is omitted as there was not enough input data for this year. The dataset is distributed in monthly GeoTIFF files, packed in annual tar.gz files, and it includes 5 files: date of BA detection (labelled JD), confidence label (CL), burned area in each pixel (BA), number of observations in the month (OB) and a metadata file. For further information on the product and its format see the Product User Guide.

The ESA Fire Disturbance Climate Change Initiative (CCI) project has produced maps of global burned area derived from satellite observations. The AVHRR - LTDR Grid v1.1 product described here contains gridded data of global burned area derived from spectral information from the AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) Land Long Term Data Record (LTDR) v5 dataset produced by NASA. The dataset provides monthly information on global burned area on a 0.25 x 0.25 degree resolution grid from 1982 to 2018. The year 1994 is omitted as there was not enough input data for this year. The dataset is distributed in NetCDF files, and it includes 4 layers: sum of burned area, standard error, fraction of burnable area and fraction of observed area. For further information on the product and its format see the Product User Guide.

This v2.1 SST_cci Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) level 3 uncollated data (L3U) Climate Data Record (CDR) consists of stable, low-bias sea surface temperature (SST) data from the AVHRR series of satellite instruments. It covers the period between 08/1981 and 12/2016. This L3U product provides these SST data on a 0.05 regular latitude-longitude grid with with a single orbit per file. The dataset has been produced as part of the European Space Agency (ESA) Climate Change Initiative Sea Surface Temperature project(ESA SST_cci). The data products from SST_cci accurately map the surface temperature of the global oceans over the period 1981 to 2016 using observations from many satellites. The data provide independently quantified SSTs to a quality suitable for climate research. This CDR Version 2.1 product supercedes the CDR Version 2.0 product. Data are made freely and openly available under a Creative Commons License by Attribution (CC By 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . When citing this dataset please also cite the associated data paper: Merchant, C.J., Embury, O., Bulgin, C.E., Block T., Corlett, G.K., Fiedler, E., Good, S.A., Mittaz, J., Rayner, N.A., Berry, D., Eastwood, S., Taylor, M., Tsushima, Y., Waterfall, A., Wilson, R., Donlon, C. Satellite-based time-series of sea-surface temperature since 1981 for climate applications, Scientific Data 6:223 (2019). http://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-019-0236-x

This v2.1 SST_cci Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Level 3 Collated (L3C) Climate Data Record (CDR) consists of stable, low-bias sea surface temperature (SST) data from the AVHRR series of satellite instruments. It covers the period between 08/1981 and 12/2016. This L3C product provides these SST data on a 0.05 regular latitude-longitude grid and collated to include all orbits for a day (separated into daytime and nighttime files). The dataset has been produced as part of the European Space Agency (ESA) Climate Change Initiative Sea Surface Temperature project(ESA SST_cci). The data products from SST_cci accurately map the surface temperature of the global oceans over the period 1981 to 2016 using observations from many satellites. The data provide independently quantified SSTs to a quality suitable for climate research. This CDR Version 2.1 product supercedes the CDR Version 2.0 product. Data are made freely and openly available under a Creative Commons License by Attribution (CC By 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . When citing this dataset please also cite the associated data paper: Merchant, C.J., Embury, O., Bulgin, C.E., Block T., Corlett, G.K., Fiedler, E., Good, S.A., Mittaz, J., Rayner, N.A., Berry, D., Eastwood, S., Taylor, M., Tsushima, Y., Waterfall, A., Wilson, R., Donlon, C. Satellite-based time-series of sea-surface temperature since 1981 for climate applications, Scientific Data 6:223 (2019). http://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-019-0236-x

The ESA Sea Surface Temperature Climate Change Initiative (ESA SST CCI) dataset accurately maps the surface temperature of the global oceans over the period 1991 to 2010, using observations from many satellites. The data provides an independently quantified SST to a quality suitable for climate research. The ESA SST CCI Analysis Long Term Product consists of daily, spatially complete fields of sea surface temperature (SST), obtained by combining the orbit data from the AVHRR and ATSR ESA SST CCI Long Term Products, using optimal interpolation to provide SSTs where there were no measurements. These data cover the period between 09/1991 and 12/2010. This dataset is cited in: Merchant, C. J., Embury, O., Roberts-Jones, J., Fiedler, E., Bulgin, C. E., Corlett, G. K., Good, S., McLaren, A., Rayner, N., Morak-Bozzo, S. and Donlon, C. (2014), Sea surface temperature datasets for climate applications from Phase 1 of the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative (SST CCI). Geoscience Data Journal. doi: 10.1002/gdj3.20 Please note that this dataset has now been superseded by the version 1.1 product, available from http://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/c65ce27928f34ebd92224c451c2a8bed