Met Éireann Re-Analysis – Climate Re-analysis
Model orography for MÉRA
Climate reanalysis is a systematic approach used to produce meteorological datasets for climate monitoring and research. They are created using a fixed version of a forecast model and a data assimilation system which utilises historical observations and they produce parameters that are physically consistent and often not routinely observed. Thus, climate reanalyses have the potential to extend the knowledge gained from current observation networks.
Met Éireann has carried out a 35-year very high resolution (2.5 km horizontal grid) regional climate reanalysis for Ireland using the ALADIN-HIRLAM numerical weather prediction system (www.hirlam.org). This reanalysis spans the period 1981 to August 2019 and includes surface, near-surface and atmospheric parameters and is the first of its kind for Ireland.
Overall, the model performed consistently over the 35-year time period and outperforms ECMWF’s ERA-Interim global reanalysis, particularly in terms of standard deviations in screen-level temperatures and surface winds.
Publications
Eoin Whelan, Emily Gleeson, John Hanley, “An Evaluation of MÉRA, a High-Resolution Mesoscale Regional Reanalysis“. J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol., 57, 2179–2196, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-17-0354.1, 2018.
Gleeson, E., Whelan, E., and Hanley, J.: “Met Éireann high resolution reanalysis for Ireland”, Adv. Sci. Res., 14, 49-61, https://doi.org/10.5194/asr-14-49-2017, 2017.
Eoin Whelan, John Hanley, Emily Gleeson, “The MÉRA Data Archive“. Met Éireann Technical Note No. 65, http://hdl.handle.net/2262/81711, 2017.
Emily Gleeson, Eoin Whelan, “Met Éireann’s contribution to package D6.2 of the JPI Climate INDECIS climate indices project“. Met Éireann Technical Note No. 67, http://hdl.handle.net/2262/91470, 2020.
Data
The MÉRA Data List is now available in grid format here
1-month sample of some of the data (in GRIB 1 format) can be found below (Note: these files are very large approximately 500 MB): mean sea level pressure, 2 m temperature, total precipitation
The full list of MÉRA data available in GRIB format (PDF)
The list of MÉRA data available for download (PDF)
Tools to view GRIB 1 files can be found here for Unix/Linux and here for Windows.