Northern Hemisphere Air, Snow, and Ground Temperature Daily Data from 1960 to 2021

Vinh Ngoc Tran provides a dataset of daily air temperature, snow depth, and ground temperature measurements for the Northern Hemisphere. The data spans a consistent time series from 1960-01-01 to 2021-12-31, with files for tens of thousands of measurement stations. Each station file includes date, value, and flag columns, with metadata containing location and elevation details.

Use Cases

• Train time-series forecasting models for air temperature based on the daily 'Ta' values.
• Analyze long-term snow cover trends based on the 'Sd' (snow depth) data from over 32,000 stations.
• Model subsurface thermal dynamics using ground temperature ('Tg') measurements at multiple depths.
• Validate climate model outputs against observed station data across the Northern Hemisphere.
• Perform spatial interpolation of climate variables using the provided station coordinates.

Strengths

• Covers a long and consistent 62-year time series from 1960 to 2021.
• Includes data from a large number of stations: 27,768 for air temperature, 32,417 for snow depth, and 659 for ground temperature.
• Provides station metadata including coordinates and elevation, enabling geospatial analysis.
• Data flags distinguish between observed and derived values, aiding in data quality assessment.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• The number of ground temperature stations (659) is significantly lower than for other variables, which may limit spatial analysis for that parameter.

Provenance

Source

Vinh Ngoc Tran

Collection Method

Likely aggregated from meteorological station networks.

Time Range

1960-01-01 to 2021-12-31

Geography

Northern Hemisphere