Global monthly climatologies of thermal contrast

<p>Thermal contrast (TC) is a key parameter for the sensitivity of (nadir-viewing) infrared sounders. This global dataset includes a 18/01/2021 to 18/01/2022 climatology of TC with respect to three different altitudes (the standard meteorological height of 2 meters, half the height of the boundary layer (HBL), and the height corresponding to the maximum temperature of the lower troposphere (within a maximum of 3 km)):&nbsp;<br>- A gridded dataset as a function of latitude (641 bins), longitude (1280 bins), month (monthly) and local mean solar time (hourly)<br>- A gridded dataset as a function of land cover type (7 classes), latitudinal zone (3 zones), month (monthly) and local mean solar time (hourly)</p><p>This dataset is based on land surface temperature from the Copernicus Global Land Services dataset with air temperatures from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA5 reanalysis. A detailed description can be found in T. Di Gioacchino et al. (submitted).</p>