Aperçu des sections

  • A climate data record of "sunshine", SARAH

    This short course introduces the SARAH Climate Data Record generated and provided by the Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM SAF). The course is accompanied by CM SAF R Toolbox training material that allows you to practically work with the data presented.
    The short course consists of three parts, two live sessions and a 2-hour break in between to allow you time to explore the data. We invite you to share and discuss your results using the CM SAF SARAH data record on the CM SAF-padlet (for student - see link to Padlet below). 

    with Jörg Trentmann, Uwe Pfeifroth, Steffen Kothe and Christine Träger-Chatterjee


    Wednesday, 28 October 2020

    The first webinar will provide insights into the SARAH Climate Data Record on Surface Solar Radiation and will introduce the ways to access and to analyse the data. During the feedback session, we will discuss open questions and provide feedback. Please engage and ask questions during the webinars via Slido.com: #EUMSC5

    To prepare yourself for the self-paced data exploration please refer to section "Course preparation" and follow the instructions;  in particular it would be very valuable to install the required software and download some data prior to the Course.

    Link to the CM SAF-padlet. 


  • Course preparation

    • For the offline hands-on exercises, we recommend to go through the preparation steps listed below prior to the course. 

      This includes:
      • Register for the CM SAF Web User Interface
        • To order and download CM SAF data, you have to register once
      • Order and Download CM SAF data
        • Order SARAH2.1 data of your preferred region. Chose one ore more variables of your interest.
        • Links to order the data are in the section 'Data record details and ordering' of the DOI website (bottom of the page). Further tips for data ordering (e.g. how select a region of interest) are provided here:

        • After you placed the order you will receive a confirmation e-mail. Once the data are ready for download you will receive an e-mail with an ftp link.
      • Install the CM SAF R Toolbox
        • The Toolbox requires the installation of R and RStudio.
        • For details on the software and installation see section 'Working with CM SAF data'.
        • Technical support during the course will be provided, but can only be limited, thus make sure that the Toolbox is installed and properly working.
        • Please contact cmsaf.training@dwd.de for technical problems with the Toolbox


  • SARAH - A Climate Data Record for Surface Radiation

    • SARAH Overview

    • SARAH 2.1

      The CM SAF SARAH 2.1 data record provides surface solar radiation data for the time period from 1983 to 2017. As part of the SARAH data record the surface irradiance, direct horizontal and direct normal radiation as well as the sunshine duration are provided with a high spatial (0.05° x 0.05°) and temporal (30-min, daily, monthly) resolution. More details and access to this Climate Data Record can be found here.

      ICDR SEVIRI Radiation

      To cover the time period from 2018 to present day, the CM SAF provides the Interim Climate Data Record SEVIRI Radiation, which is based on SARAH-2 methods and consistenly extends the SARAH-2 climate data record; these data are available with a timeliness of less than 5 days. More details and access to this data record can be found here.

      Applications and Publications

      The CM SAF SARAH data records on surface solar radiation have been used in many studies and for many applications. Some of the applications can be found via the CM SAF Application Webpage. A list of scientific publications using the SARAH data record can be found here. Many publications are about the evaluation of the SARAH data record with surface stations to assess the quality of the SARAH data. Application areas of the data include climate analysis, solar energy assessments, quality control of surface data,  agrometeorology, and climate monitoring.

      How to get the data?

      All CM SAF data can be downloaded free of charge via our Web User Interface. Details on the ordering process can be found here.


  • Working with SARAH (and other CM SAF data)

    The Climate Data Record (CDR) SARAH (and most other CM SAF data) is provided in cf-compliant NetCDF format. Thus, any software capable of handling NetCDF data can be used.

    The CM SAF R Toolbox was specifically developed for climatological time series analysis of NetCDF data. An overview on the CM SAF R Toolbox and some functionalities are provided in the section "The CM SAF R Toolbox."

    To familiarize with the SARAH CDR, we encourage you to go through the cheat sheets "Basic Climate Analysis using the CM SAF R Toolbox" provided below.

    • The CM SAF R Toolbox

      The CM SAF R TOOLBOX is an easy-to-use tool to prepare, analyze and visualize CM SAF NetCDF data. The Toolbox offers a collection of more than 60 operators for analysis and manipulation of CM SAF NetCDF formatted data. The CM SAF R Toolbox is based on an R-shiny graphical user interface, which guides through all options. Thus, no R or scripting experience is needed.

       



    • Basic Climate Analysis using the CM SAF R Toolbox
      A helpful source on working with the Toolbox might be the recently started series of CM SAF R Toolbox Cheat Sheets.

       (1) from tar to nc  (2) calculate a climatological mean  (3) calculate an anomaly


    • How to create monthly anomalies of sunshine duration
    • Example Data

      If you want to reproduce the results from the live demo or the tutorial video you can download the data here:


      We recommend to download your own data to get used to the ordering process and to produce results for your region of interest.
    • More on the CM SAF R Toolbox

      We offer a lot of information material to make the start with the CM SAF R Toolbox as easy as possible. Besides the introductive video, there is a manual for the Toolbox as well as for the cmsaf R-package, a Questions & Answers document and a flyer. 

      Probably the best way to start with CM SAF data and the CM SAF R Toolbox is the COMET e-learning module, which we highly recommend. It takes about 1 hour to complete the COMET module.

    • Hands-on Session Presentation

      Hands-on Presentation

  • More on EUMETSAT training

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