ERA5-Land Added to the Dataset API

ERA5-Land is now in the Dataset API, an hourly land-surface reanalysis on a 0.1° grid with Soil Moisture at three depth layers.

The dataset covers global land surfaces on a 0.1° grid, roughly 9 km, with hourly values. Oceans and lakes are excluded. Four variables are available: temperature, total precipitation, latent heat flux and Soil Moisture at 0-7 cm, 7-28 cm and 28-100 cm depth.

When to use it instead of ERA5

The finer land grid makes ERA5-Land a closer fit than ERA5 for agricultural modelling, hydrology and soil work, where the coarser ERA5 grid flattens local differences. For values over water, ERA5 or ERA5-Ocean are still required.

Two limitations worth knowing

ERA5-Land does not assimilate observations directly. It is a rerun of the ECMWF land surface model driven by downscaled ERA5 atmospheric fields, so observations reach it only indirectly through that forcing. The Dataset API currently serves ERA5-Land from 1995 onward.