Monthly time series of spatially enhanced relative humidity for Europe at 30 arc seconds resolution (2000 - 2021) derived from ERA5-Land data

Overview: ERA5-Land is a reanalysis dataset providing a consistent view of the evolution of land variables over several decades at an enhanced resolution compared to ERA5. ERA5-Land has been produced by replaying the land component of the ECMWF ERA5 climate reanalysis. Reanalysis combines model data with observations from across the world into a globally complete and consistent dataset using the laws of physics. Reanalysis produces data that goes several decades back in time, providing an accurate description of the climate of the past. Processing steps: The original hourly ERA5-Land air temperature 2 m above ground and dewpoint temperature 2 m data has been spatially enhanced from 0.1 degree to 30 arc seconds (approx. 1000 m) spatial resolution by image fusion with CHELSA data (https://chelsa-climate.org/). Subsequently, the temperature time series have been aggregated on a daily basis. From these, daily relative humidity has been calculated for the time period 01/2000 - 07/2021. Relative humidity (rh2m) has been calculated from air temperature 2 m above ground (Ta) and dewpoint temperature 2 m above ground (Td) using the formula for saturated water pressure from Wright (1997): maximum water pressure = 611.21 * exp(17.502 * Ta / (240.97 + Ta)) actual water pressure = 611.21 * exp(17.502 * Td / (240.97 + Td)) relative humidity = actual water pressure / maximum water pressure The resulting relative humidity has been aggregated to monthly averages. Resultant values have been converted to represent percent * 10, thus covering a theoretical range of [0, 1000]. File naming scheme (YYYY = year; MM = month): ERA5_land_rh2m_avg_monthly_YYYY_MM.tif Projection + EPSG code: Latitude-Longitude/WGS84 (EPSG: 4326) Spatial extent: north: 82:00:30N south: 18N west: 32:00:30W east: 70E Spatial resolution: 30 arc seconds (approx. 1000 m) Temporal resolution: Monthly Pixel values: Percent * 10 (scaled to Integer; example: value 738 = 73.8 %) Software used: GDAL 3.2.2 and GRASS GIS 8.0.0 Original dataset license: https://apps.ecmwf.int/datasets/licences/copernicus/ Processed by: mundialis GmbH & Co. KG, Germany (https://www.mundialis.de/) Reference: Wright, J.M. (1997): Federal meteorological handbook no. 3 (FCM-H3-1997). Office of Federal Coordinator for Meteorological Services and Supporting Research. Washington, DC Acknowledgements: This study was partially funded by EU grant 874850 MOOD. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the authors and don't necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.