TerraClimate

Spatial data on several climate variables, extracted from Climatology Lab’s TerraClimate. The table below shows all possible variables to be extracted, which are chosen through the “dataset” parameter. Data ranges from 1958 to 2020.

Netcdf files are downloaded from the THREDDS web server, as recommended for rectangular subsets of the global data.

Click to see all dataset options

Dataset	Code	Description	Units
max_temperature	tmax	Maximum 2-m Temperature	degC
min_temperature	tmin	Minimum 2-m Temperature	degC
wind_speed	ws	Wind Speed at 10-m	m/s
vapor_pressure_deficit	vpd	Vapor Pressure Deficit	kPa
vapor_pressure	vap	2-m Vapor Pressure	kPa
snow_water_equivalent	swe	Snow Water Equivalent at End of Month	mm
shortwave_radiation_flux	srad	Downward Shortwave Radiation Flux at the Surface	W/m^2
soil_moisture	soil	Soil Moisture at End of Month	mm
runoff	q	Runoff	mm
precipitation	ppt	Accumulated Precipitation	mm
potential_evaporation	pet	Reference Evapotranspiration	mm
climatic_water_deficit	def	Climatic Water Deficit	mm
water_evaporation	aet	Actual Evapotranspiration	mm
palmer_drought_severity_index	PDSI	Palmer Drought Severity Index	unitless

Options:

dataset: picks the variable to be read. Possible options are shown in the table above.
raw_data: there are two options:
- TRUE: if you want the data as it is originally.
- FALSE: if you want the treated version of the data.
time_period: picks the years for which the data will be downloaded
language: you can choose between Portuguese ("pt") and English ("eng")
legal_amazon_only: if set to TRUE, only downloads data from the Legal Amazon region

OBS: A good internet connection is needed, because the data is heavy.

Examples:

# Downloading maximum temperature data from 2000 to 2001
max_temp <- load_climate(dataset = "max_temperature", time_period = 2000:2001)

# Downloading precipitation data only for the legal Amazon in 2010
amz_precipitation <- load_climate(
  dataset = "precipitation",
  time_period = 2010,
  legal_amazon_only = TRUE
)