DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14223792
title: Dataset: First comprehensive assessment of industrial-era land heat uptake from multiple sources

description: Dataset Overview

This Zenodo repository contains a comprehensive dataset of global mean yearly land heat uptake (LHU) estimates for the historical period (all data sources) and the SSP585 scenario (exclusively for CMIP6 models). The dataset includes estimates from multiple data sources: gridded observations (OBS, 5 sources), reanalyses (REA, 7 sources), and CMIP6 simulations (CMIP6, 37 models). These LHU estimates were developed and first analyzed in García-Pereira et al. (2024).

The estimates were obtained using the one-dimensional heat conduction forward model (ConForM; García-Pereira et al., 2023), forced with yearly global mean ground surface temperature data from each source over various time periods. The time periods include the full available range (fromINIT), as well as specific periods starting in 1950, 1960, and 1971, extending to the most recent data available. For a detailed explanation of the methods, rationale, main findings, and comparisons with previous geothermal LHU estimates, refer to García-Pereira et al. (2024).

Dataset Contents

The dataset is provided in NetCDF format and is organized by data source type (OBS, REA, CMIP6) and time period (fromINIT, from1950, from1960, from1971). Each file follows the naming convention:



<source_type>_LHU_ym_gb_sum_<period>.nc


where <source_type> indicates the data source (OBS, REA, CMIP6) and <period> specifies the starting time (fromINIT, from1950, from1960, from1971). For example, OBS_LHU_ym_gb_sum_from1971.nc contains LHU estimates derived from observational data starting in 1971. For files corresponding to from1950, from1960, and from1971, the dataset also includes mean and standard deviation calculations. Additionally, raw LHU estimates derived from CMIP6 subsurface temperature data are provided in the file CMIP6/CMIP6raw_LHU_ym_gb_sum.nc.

Citation instructions

If you use this dataset, please cite the following references:



Garcia-Pereira, F. and González-Rouco, J. F. : "ConForM: a one-dimensional heat Conduction Forward Model", Zenodo, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10371439, 2023.

García-Pereira, F., González-Rouco, J. F., Melo-Aguilar, C., Steinert, N. J., García-Bustamante, E., de Vrese, P., Jungclaus, J., Lorenz, S., Hagemann, S., Cuesta-Valero, F. J., García-García, A., and Beltrami, H.: "First comprehensive assessment of industrial-era land heat uptake from multiple sources", Earth Syst. Dynam., 15, 547–564, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-547-2024, 2024.


Additional Resources

For further insight into the evolution of LHU, its role in terrestrial energy partitioning, and the limitations of state-of-the-art Earth System Models in representing it, we recommend exploring these additional publications:



Cuesta-Valero, F. J., García-García, A., Beltrami, H., Smerdon J. E.: "First assessment of continental energy storage in CMIP5 simulations", Geophys. Res. Lett., 43, 5326–5335, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL068496, 2016.

Cuesta-Valero, F. J., García-García, A., Beltrami, H., González-Rouco, J. F., and García-Bustamante, E.: "Long-term global ground heat flux and continental heat storage from geothermal data", Clim. Past, 17, 451–468, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-451-2021, 2021.

Cuesta-Valero, F. J., Beltrami, H., García-García, A., Krinner, G., Langer, M., MacDougall, A. H., Nitzbon, J., Peng, J., von Schuckmann, K., Seneviratne, S. I., Thiery, W., Vanderkelen, I., and Wu, T.: "Continental heat storage: contributions from the ground, inland waters, and permafrost thawing", Earth Syst. Dynam., 14, 609–627, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-609-2023, 2023.

González-Rouco, J. F., Steinert, N. J., García-Bustamante, E., Hagemann, S., de Vrese, P., Jungclaus, J. H., Lorenz, S. J., Melo-Aguilar, C., García-Pereira, F., and Navarro, J.: "Increasing the depth of a Land Surface Model. Part I: Impacts on the soil thermal regime and energy storage", Journal of Hydrometeorology, 22(12), 3211-3230, https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-21-0024.1, 2021.

Steinert N. J., González-Rouco, J. F., Melo Aguilar, C. A., García Pereira, F., García-Bustamante, E., de Vrese, P. Alexeev, V., Jungclaus, J. H., Lorenz, S. J., and Hagemann, S.: "Agreement of analytical and simulation-based estimates of the required land depth in climate models", Geophysical Research Letters, 48, e2021GL094273, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL094273, 2021.

Steinert, N. J., Cuesta-Valero, F. J., García-Pereira, F., de Vrese, P., Melo Aguilar, C. A., García-Bustamante, E., Jungclaus, J., González-Rouco, J. F.: "Underestimated land heat uptake alters the global energy distribution in CMIP6 climate models", Geophysical Research Letters, 51, e2023GL107613, https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL107613, 2024.

von Schuckmann, K., Minière, A., Gues, F., Cuesta-Valero, F. J., Kirchengast, G., Adusumilli, S., Straneo, F., Ablain, M., Allan, R. P., Barker, P. M., Beltrami, H., Blazquez, A., Boyer, T., Cheng, L., Church, J., Desbruyeres, D., Dolman, H., Domingues, C. M., García-García, A., Giglio, D., Gilson, J. E., Gorfer, M., Haimberger, L., Hakuba, M. Z., Hendricks, S., Hosoda, S., Johnson, G. C., Killick, R., King, B., Kolodziejczyk, N., Korosov, A., Krinner, G., Kuusela, M., Landerer, F. W., Langer, M., Lavergne, T., Lawrence, I., Li, Y., Lyman, J., Marti, F., Marzeion, B., Mayer, M., MacDougall, A. H., McDougall, T., Monselesan, D. P., Nitzbon, J., Otosaka, I., Peng, J., Purkey, S., Roemmich, D., Sato, K., Sato, K., Savita, A., Schweiger, A., Shepherd, A., Seneviratne, S. I., Simons, L., Slater, D. A., Slater, T., Steiner, A. K., Suga, T., Szekely, T., Thiery, W., Timmermans, M.-L., Vanderkelen, I., Wjiffels, S. E., Wu, T., and Zemp, M.: "Heat stored in the Earth system 1960–2020: where does the energy go?", Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 1675–1709, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1675-2023, 2023.