FAQs

Q:

What are the sources of the data in Climate Engine?

A:

The data in Climate Engine are primarily sourced from third-party data producers, including NASA, the US Geological Survey (USGS), the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), and many more. The other datasets produced as a part of ClimateEngine.org collaborations and initiatives are available publicly, such as OpenET and GridMET.

More information regarding sources of datasets is provided through the Climate Engine tool — this information will be migrated to the "Datasets" section of this support site soon.

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Q:

Does Climate Engine perform additional processing on the datasets that are available?

A:

In some cases, Climate Engine pre-processes datasets in conjunction with guidance from the data providers. One example of this type pre-processing is the scaling applied to the Landsat Surface Reflectance data to convert to proportions of reflectance for each wavelength.

We also perform unit conversions for variables like precipitation, temperature, or vapor pressure. In each case, unit conversions are applied to ensure consistency across datasets for the same variable — units are clearly marked within the Research App.

The only other processing the Climate Engine applies is to produce the statistical analyses available in the tool and APIs. These processing steps —such as calculating Mann-Kendall statistics, standardized indices, percentiles, and more — are applied consistently to each dataset.

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Q:

How does Climate Engine account for sources of error in the input data?

A:

Climate Engine refers users to data providers for documentation of sources of error or uncertainty and does not attempt to account for error in our calculation. For this reason, we encourage users to familiarize themselves with the datasets that they are using so that they can better interpret the analysis provided through Climate Engine.

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Q:

How can I request that a new dataset be added to Climate Engine?

A:

We prioritize adding new datasets to Climate Engine based on their benefit to the user community and, often, their consistency with other datasets that are currently available. If you would like to request a dataset be added to Climate Engine, please message us with the subject line "Request New Dataset" through the support site’s "Contact" form. We will use user requests to prioritize new datasets and features going forward, but cannot guarantee that a requested dataset will ultimately be added.

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