ERA-Interim/Land: A global land-surface reanalysis based on ERA-Interim meteorological forcing

Title
ERA-Interim/Land: A global land-surface reanalysis based on ERA-Interim meteorological forcing
Report
Date Published
09/2012
Series/Collection
ERA Report Series
Document Number
13
Author
C. Albergel
Anton Beljaars
Souhail Boussetta
E. Brun
Hannah Cloke
D.P. Dee
Emanuel Dutra
J.M. Sabater
Event Series/Collection
ERA Report
Abstract This report describes ERA-Interim/Land, a global land-surface data set covering the period 1979-2010. ERA-Interim/Land is the result of a land-surface model simulation using HTESSEL, with meteorological forcing from ERA-Interim and precipitation adjustments based on GPCP v2.1. ERA-Interim/Land preserves closure of the water balance and is therefore more suitable for climate applications than the land surface parameters included in the original ERA-Interim data set. We compare with ground-based and remote sensing observations to assess the quality of ERA-Interim/Land, in particular for estimates of soil moisture, snow depth, surface albedo and turbulent latent and sensible fluxes at the surface and river discharges. Impacts of using the new land-surface initial condition in forecasts have been verified in deterministic and probabilistic configurations (up to monthly and seasonal ranges) of the Integrated Forecasting System at ECMWF.