Abstract: This dataset provides globally consistent, bias-corrected climate data at 0.5° spatial resolution, consisting of a set of seven climate variables derived from three General Circulation Models (GCMs) participating in CMIP5, downscaled by 10 CORDEX Regional Climate Model (RCM) simulations and bias-corrected globally for the period 1950/1960–2099. It includes data from three climate change scenarios, namely RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. The three GCMs are: ICHEC-EC-EARTH, MPI-M-MPI-ESM-LR, NOAA-GFDL-GFDL-ESM2M. Data are originally available as one netCDF file per GCM (3) per variable (7, NOAA-GFDL-GFDL-ESM2M: 5) per run (4, NOAA-GFDL-GFDL-ESM2M: 3). Available here are netCDF files per quantity (see TableOfContents), run (historical, rcp26, rcp45, rcp85), and GCM (see Size for the overall sum per GCM).

TableOfContents: daily mean 2m-air temperature (tas); daily minimum 2m-air temperature (tasmin), daily maximum 2m-air temperature (tasmax); daily sum of precipitation (pr); daily mean surface downwelling longwave radiation (rlds); daily mean 10m wind speed (sfcWind); daily mean relative humidity (hurs)

*: These variables are NOT included in the NOAA-GFDL-GFDL-ESM2M driven data.

TechnicalInfo: dimension: 720 columns x 360 rows; temporalExtent_startDate_Historlcal: 1950-01-01 00:00:00; temporalExtent_endDate_Historical: 2019-12-31 23:59:59; temporalDuration_Historical: 70; temporalDurationUnit_Historical: a; temporalExtent_startDate_RCPs: 2020-01-01 00:00:00; temporalExtent_endDate_RCPs: 2099-12-31 23:59:59; temporalDuration_RCPs: 80; temporalDurationUnit_RCPs: a; temporalResolution: 1; temporalResolutionUnit: d; spatialResolution: 0.5; spatialResolutionUnit: degree; horizontalResolutionXdirection: 0.5; horizontalResolutionXdirectionUnit: degree; horizontalResolutionYdirection: 0.5; horizontalResolutionYdirectionUnit: degree; verticalResolution: none; verticalResolutionUnit: none

*) For MPI-M-MPI-ESM-LR: temporalExtent_startDate_Historlcal: 1960-01-01 00:00:00; temporalExtent_endDate_Historical: 2019-12-31 23:59:59; temporalDuration_Historical: 60;

Methods:  The ISIMIP3BASD v2.5 bias correction method (see Lange [2019; 2021]) was applied to adjust systematic biases using the GSWP3-W5E5 observational dataset. The regional climate models (RCMs) used are: (listed are Institution/working group, RCM Model, Driving GCM): 

Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), REMO2009, MPI-ESM-LR
Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), RCA4, MPI-ESM-LR
Climate Limited-area Modelling Community (CLMcom), CCLM4-8-17-CLM3-5, MPI-ESM-LR
Climate Limited-area Modelling Community (CLMcom), CCLM5-0-2, MPI-ESM-LR
Universite du Quebec a Montreal, CRCM5, MPI-ESM-LR
Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), RCA4, ICHEC-EC-EARTH
Climate Limited-area Modelling Community (CLMcom), CCLM4-8-17-CLM3-5, ICHEC-EC-EARTH
Climate Limited-area Modelling Community (CLMcom), CCLM5-0-2, ICHEC-EC-EARTH
Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), RCA4, NOAA-GFDL-GFDL-ESM2M
National Center for Atmospheric Research, WRF, NOAA-GFDL-GFDL-ESM2M

The historical runs begin 1950-01-01 (ICHEC-EC-EARTH and NOAA-GFDL-GFDL-ESM2M) or 1960-01-01 (MPI-M-MPI-ESM-LR) and end 2005-12-31. Historical runs are appended by rcp85 runs for years 2006-01-01 to 2019-12-31. All projection runs begin 2020-01-01 and end 2099-12-31.

The routines (python) used to create and work with the data sets are available from this web page as well: Discontinuity_Analysis_GlobCORD-HC.py; IBICUS-BIAS-CORRECTION.py

For more information please take a look at this publication: Yakubu et al., 2025.

Quality: Not all of the domains have been downscaled by CORDEX RCMs. Therefore, data files for scenario rcp26 only contain 7 CORDEX domains; all other files contain 8 domains (see also https://cordex.org/domains/cordex-domain-description/)

Units (see TableOfContents): K; K; K; kg m-2 s-1; W m-2; m s-1; percent

GeoLocation: westBoundCoordinate: -167.0; westBoundCoordinateUnit: degrees East; eastBoundCoordinate: 180.0; eastBoundCoordinateUnit: degrees East; southBoundCoordinate: -56.0; southBoundCoordinateUnit: degrees North; northBoundCoordinate: 76.0; northBoundCoordinateUnit: degrees North

Size: ICHEC-EC-EARTH: 137.7 GByte, MPI-M-MPI-ESM-LR: 130.6 GByte, NOAA-GFDL-GFDL-ESM2M: 55.5 GByte

Format: netCDF

DataSources: See the file "GloBCORD-HD_ESMs-RCMs.pdf"

Contact: fuseini.yakubu (at) uni-hamburg.de; shabeh.hasson (at) uni-hamburg.de

Webpage: https://www.geo.uni-hamburg.de/geographie/abteilungen/physische-geographie/arbeitsgruppen/ag-hareme.html

We acknowledge the World Climate Research Programme's Working Group on Regional Climate, and the Working Group on Coupled Modelling, former coordinating body of CORDEX and responsible panel for CMIP5.