Global monthly climatologies of thermal contrast

Thermal contrast (TC) is a key parameter for the sensitivity of (nadir-viewing) infrared sounders. This global dataset includes a 18/01/2021 to 18/01/2022 climatology of TC with respect to three different altitudes (the standard meteorological height of 2 meters, half the height of the boundary layer (HBL), and the height corresponding to the maximum temperature of the lower troposphere (within a maximum of 3 km)): - A gridded dataset as a function of latitude (641 bins), longitude (1280 bins), month (monthly) and local mean solar time (hourly)- A gridded dataset as a function of land cover type (7 classes), latitudinal zone (3 zones), month (monthly) and local mean solar time (hourly)
This dataset is based on land surface temperature from the Copernicus Global Land Services dataset with air temperatures from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA5 reanalysis. A detailed description can be found in T. Di Gioacchino et al. (submitted).