ERA-Interim/Land: a global land water resources dataset

Abstract

The ERA-Interim/Land is a global land-surface dataset covering the period 1979–2010 and describing the evolution of the soil (moisture and temperature) and snowpack. ERA-Interim/Land is the result of a single 32 yr simulation with the latest ECMWF land surface model driven by meteorological forcing from the ERA-Interim atmospheric reanalysis and precipitation adjustments based on GPCP v2.1. ERA-Interim/Land preserves closure of the water balance and includes a number of parameterisations improvements in the land surface scheme with respect to the original ERA-Interim dataset, which makes it suitable for climate studies involving land water resources. The quality of ERA-Interim/Land, assessed by comparing with ground-based and remote sensing observations is discussed. In particular, estimates of soil moisture, snow depth, surface albedo, turbulent latent and sensible fluxes, and river discharges are verified against a large number of sites measurements. ERA-Interim/Land provides a global integrated and coherent water resources estimate that is used also for the initialization of numerical weather prediction and climate models.