1. Introduction

The Drought & Vegetation Data Cube (D&V Cube) is a collection data records that are relevant for drought and vegetation monitoring. 

The D&V cubes contains variables from different providers:  

All data records were fit into a common data model i.e. all data in the cube are provided on a regular latitude-longitude grid (WGS84) and all files in the cube are in cf-compliant netcdf-4 format. Details on the methods used to bring the original data into this data model are provided in the methods document.

Information on the variables provided in the cube is provided in this guide. The fact sheets refer to the data records as they are provided in the D&V cube. The Product User Manuals, Algorithm Theoretic Baseline Descriptions and Validation Reports refer to the original data. Please note this, especially when referring to validation reports: most of the data records in the D&V cube have been regridded, which may have implications on the accuracy of the data. 

In the D&V cube you will find 2 different types of data records: 

  • Climate Data Records (CDRs) and 
  • Interim Climate Data Records (ICDRS). Both are explained in the short video below:

In short: 

CDRs are of highest quality, but their temporal coverage usually ends a few years before present. 

ICDRs fill the gap between the end of a CDR and present. There quality may not be as high as the quality of the corresponding CDR, but they do provide the best available quality of this data record of the time being.