Europe’s Climate Data Store (CDS), launched today, is a one-stop shop for past, present and future climate information. The CDS greatly improves access to climate data and tools, is open and free for all to use, and will change the ways in which society can benefit from Earth observations and climate science.
Developed by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) at ECMWF, the store draws on the vast wealth of Earth observation data collected day and night through the European Commission's Copernicus Programme.
The CDS is a cloud-based tool that allows policy-makers, businesses and scientists to browse and combine online petabytes of raw data, build their own applications, maps and graphs online in real time, and access all relevant climate information at the push of a button.
The CDS includes a toolbox enabling users to build their own web-based apps, and to analyse, monitor and predict changes in climate drivers – such as surface temperature and soil moisture – and their impact on business sectors such as energy, water management or tourism. Transforming data into climate-related information is therefore key added value of the Climate Data Store.
“The Climate Data Store gives a wide range of users easy access to good quality climate data in one place, and offers tools that will ultimately lead to better use of the data,” says Dick Dee, ECMWF’s Deputy Head of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.