PVG Tropopause: Time Series from Four Reanalyses, 1980-2017

Four reanalysis datasets (ERA5, ERA-Interim, MERRA-2, JRA-55) provide time series of the PV-gradient tropopause from 1980 to 2017. Katharina Turhal of Forschungszentrum Jülich computed the data using the Eddy Tracking Toolkit, with four daily time steps across isentropic levels. The datasets contain variables like wind speed and location of the tropopause, grouped by hemisphere in NetCDF4 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing long-term trends in tropopause location based on the eqlat_lim and latmean_lim variables.
• Studying the relationship between wind speed and tropopause properties using the u_lim and vh_lim variables.
• Investigating potential vorticity dynamics at the tropopause using the pv_lim variable.
• Comparing tropopause characteristics across different atmospheric reanalysis products.

Strengths

• Data spans 38 years (1980-2017), providing a long-term climate record.
• Includes four independent reanalysis products (ERA5, ERA-Interim, MERRA-2, JRA-55) for cross-comparison.
• Provides four daily time steps (00h, 06h, 12h, 18h) for temporal analysis.
• Covers multiple isentropic levels from 320 K to 380 K potential temperature.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Forschungszentrum Jülich, Katharina Turhal

Collection Method

Computed from four reanalyses (ERA5, ERA-Interim, MERRA-2, JRA-55) using the Eddy Tracking Toolkit.

Time Range

1980-01-01 to 2017-12-31

Geography

Global, with data grouped for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.