Network of Experts

We are climate and data scientists who are breaking information silos and building collective wisdom about climate data and its applications

Climate observations - measurements of temperature, precipitation, wind, pressure, soil moisture, ice extent, and numerous other variables from many different types of sensors - form the bedrock of our understanding of the climate system. Climate observations are assembled into climate datasets, which are used to develop, evaluate, initialize, and force Earth system models. Climate observations are also used to gauge climate risks and vulnerability, as input into comprehensive reanalyses, and to characterize extreme weather events.

Despite the immeasurable value of observational climate data, turning climate data into actionable information requires more than crunching numbers with the latest machine learning algorithms. From spurious variability and trends, to mismatched definitions between observational data and model output, to the undersampling of extreme events, all climate data have a set of strengths, limitations, and applications.

Many leading climate data experts have contributed data summaries and expert-user guidance to the Climate Data Guide, helping to make climate data more findable, usable, and actionable.

Data creators, data publishers, and scientists who use climate data are invited to contribute expert commentaries on data strengths and limitations to the Climate Data Guide. Consider joining this group of exceptional climate scientists and data scientists by publishing your expert commentary on this website. The Climate Data Guide has in excess of a quarter million visitors per year, making it an excellent platform for communicating data expertise and increasing the visibility of important datasets. To learn more about what is published on the Climate Data Guide and how to get involved, read this discussion.