Which distribution processes of the data are available?
You can request data to be delivered via our data server (access via https or sftp) and email when ordering via the CM SAF Web user Interface. The data provision via email is possible for small data amounts only. Distribution of the products via https/sftp is the only available option for continuous orders. Additionally, selected parameters are provided via EUMETCast (currently monthly means of cloud fraction as well as daily and monthly products of sunshine duration and surface incoming shortwave radiation based on SEVIRI data). CM SAF is also adding several data records to the EUMETSAT Data Store. Here, users have access to EUMETSAT data through a web user interface and through a suite of APIs. The APIs support browsing, searching the data catalogue and downloading products. Browsing, searching and downloading is also possible through the WebUI.
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How do I credit/cite the CM SAF products (e.g. in acknowledgments, on websites, in public speeches)?
All CM SAF climate data records come with a DOI registration. If you use one of our climate data records, please use the citation given on the corresponding DOI landing page. For our interim climate data records the information how to cite the data is given on its data record landing page. The citation as well as the link to the corresponding landing pages are given in the product details in the Web User Interface (section “product characteristics”).
If you want to cite the CM SAF project in general, you should cite the following publication: Schulz, J., Albert, P., Behr, H.-D., Caprion, D., Deneke, H., Dewitte, S., Dürr, B., Fuchs, P., Gratzki, A., Hechler, P., Hollmann, R., Johnston, S., Karlsson, K.-G., Manninen, T., Müller, R., Reuter, M., Riihelä, A., Roebeling, R., Selbach, N., Tetzlaff, A., Thomas, W., Werscheck, M., Wolters, E., and Zelenka, A.: Operational climate monitoring from space: the EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM-SAF), Atmos. Chem. Phys., 9, 1687–1709, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-9-1687-2009, 2009.
All intellectual property rights of the CM SAF products belong to EUMETSAT. The use of these products is granted to every interested user, free of charge. If you wish to use these products, EUMETSAT's copyright credit must be shown by displaying the words "copyright (year) EUMETSAT" on each of the products used.
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How can I register on the CM SAF webpage?
What can I do if I forgot my user name and/or password?
In case you forgot your user name and/or password, please check the "Resend password" option in the login section of our Web User Interface. You can initiate a resending of your password to your registered e-mail address.. Usernames are usually generated as the first letter of your first name followed by your last name (max. 40 characters). You do not need to register again. In case of problems (e.g., you registered email address is not valid any more) please contact our User Help Desk
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How can I delete my CM SAF user account?
You can delete your user account via your user profile in the Web user Interface
- Log in to your CM SAF user account on https://wui.cmsaf.eu
- In the navigation change to User > Manage Account
- You can delete your account with your password using the "Delete Account" button
Once you have submitted your request to delete your account, your account will be automatically suspended in a first step. Before we permanently delete your account, there is a 14-day grace period, in which you can restore your account. If you change your mind within this grace period, please contact our User Help Desk and your account will be restored. Please be aware that your email address cannot be used for a new registration while your account is suspended. After the 14-day grace period we will delete your personal data and permanently deactivate your account within a week. We will inform you before we start to delete your personal data. A listing of all data that will be deleted can be found in the “manage Account” tab in the “User” section on the Web User Interface.
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How can I order CM SAF data?
You can search and order data via our Web User Interface. To get access to the ordering you need to be a registered user. You can search data even if you are not registered. You can register here.
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I cannot download my order using wget.
If you encounter an error message like "Unable to establish SSL connection", try upgrading wget to a newer version with SSL support.
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Can I set preferences for my product search?
The tool allowing to select sub-areas currently does not check the defined area of the products. As not all of our products are available for the complete globe, it might have happened that the area you chose is not covered by your requested product. If the chosen area is completely outside the covered area, you will not find valid data in your file. Some further checks during the selection process giving you a warning in these cases are planned to be implemented in the next update of our Web User Interface, Until this is realized, please check the area definition of the product when selecting sub-areas. The area definition of the product is given in the description of the product. Additionally, the quicklooks provided on our webpage give an overview of the area covered by the product.
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How can I select sub-areas of the products or transfer the products into a different projection?
CM SAF offers a basic set of conversions/transformations on its products by integrating some cdo functionalities into our Web User Interface. You can convert CM SAF HDF5-files into NetCDF format, order the data interpolated to a regular latitude/longitude grid and/or select sub-domains during the ordering process. These options are available for most of the CM SAF products. Due to the size of some time series, we currently cannot offer a post-processing for all parameters. If your preferred product format is not HDF5 / NetCDF or if you are interested in other grid types,
CM SAF recommends to install cdo on your part and to manipulate the products yourself. Instructions on cdo installation and some examples for the use with CM SAF data are available on our webpage in the Tools section.
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Where can I adapt the products (selection of sub areas, re-projection) during the ordering process?
Once you have decided on your product from the list on our WUI (via search and order), go to the "details" of your chosen product (click on the magnifying glass on the right). Below the box giving you the details of the product you will find a second box "Product Adaptations". Via the given link you will be forwarded to a page allowing you to reproject the product to a regular latitude/longitude grid, to change the resolution and/or to select sub-domains. Please be aware that due to e.g. the size of the time series not all options might be available for your chosen product.
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Can I order sub-areas of the products or order data in a different projection?
CM SAF offers a basic set of conversions/transformations on its products by integrating some cdo functionalities into our Web User Interface. Besides the pure conversion of CM SAF HDF5-files into NetCDF format, we offer the opportunity for interpolation to a regular latitude/longitude grid and/or selection of sub-domains during the ordering process. A set of pre-defined areas for the CORDEX (COordinated Regional climate Downscaling Experiment) domains is available. When choosing one of these domains the products will be reprojected and interpolated to an equidistant latitude/longitude grid and restricted to a subdomain according to the CORDEX guidelines. The resulting output format is NetCDF with CF conventions. Please be aware that due to e.g. the size of the time series not all options might be available for your chosen product.
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How large is my requested order?
Information on the size of the ordered data is available if the products are ordered in their original format (e.g., no sub-sampling or format conversion). The total size of the order is based on the original products. Please be aware that the final order size may differ from this value in case of selected order post-processing, like format conversion or sub-domaining. The final size depends on the selected sub-domain size and/or target horizontal resolution. It is not possible to estimate the size of standing orders! In case of mixing uniquely and continuously ordered products in your order cart please be aware that the total sum only covers the parts of the order for which a size is given in the table.
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Can I cancel my order ?
Users can cancel their pending orders. Please select “Order Status” and select the detail view of the order id you would like to cancel. In case processing of your order has not been started yet (status “submitted”), you will find a link “Cancel order #<OrderId>”. Please follow the link to cancel your order. An email will be sent confirming the cancellation.
In case processing of your order has already started, you will need to contact the CM SAF User Help Desk via email
(contact.cmsaf@dwd.de) in order to cancel your order. Please give “Cancel Order <OrderId>” in the subject of your email. You can also give a list of order numbers in the subject line if you would like to cancel more than one order.
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I cannot find recent data of the product on the WUI.
There can be several reasons why data might not be available on our webpage. CM SAF processes interim climate data records (ICDR) and climate data records (CDR). While our ICDR products are processed continuously our CDRs are generated in dedicated processing events covering specific time ranges.
1) Our ICDR products are processed in an off-line mode and our Service Specifications allow 5-15 days to generate the products. We try to distribute the data as quickly as possible after the day of observations, but sometimes we need to make use of the maximum time delay due to different reasons. If you see an even longer delay of data delivery please check our Service Messages and the Product availability status on our webpage, where we announce issues of delay in data distribution
2) If the product you are looking for is part of our CDRs the time frame you are looking for might only become available with the next edition of the climate data record.
3) During the last years the product portfolio of the CM SAF has been changed. Several products have been discontinued and will not be processed any longer. These discontinued products are available on demand only and users are asked to contact the CM SAF User Help Desk for access to previously processed data. For a lot of products new and improved versions of the respective data have become available via our Web User Interface and users are recommended to check the respective DOI pages and service messages for updates on the products.
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What happens if I want to order more than 1 TB of data?
A maximum total order size of 1 TB per user is allowed at any time of the order processing (between placing the order and availability on the CM SAF data server). Users who want to order more than 1 TB of data need to split the required data volume accordingly. As long as the active orders stay below a total amount of 1 TB new orders can be placed. When placing the order in the order cart, the file size is checked against the maximum order size and the already ordered data volume. Information will be provided at all times during the ordering process. As soon as an order has been processed, the data amount of the active requests is adjusted accordingly and users can place new orders. However, it is highly recommended to download the previously placed order(s) before submitting a new order, as there is still a time limit of 14 days for the download of the orders.
CM SAF is currently adding several data records to the EUMETSAT Data Store. Here a maximum of 5 TB/day can be ordered. More information on the limitation of the EUMETSAT Data store are explained in this FAQ.
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Can I order a product continuously?
Yes! All products in the product group "Interim Climate Data Records” (often also called “operational products") can be ordered continuously. When choosing the time period click the button "standing order". You will receive the data calculated the day before in a continuous manner. Please be aware that you get data from the day you submitted your request onwards. If you require older data as well, please order them separately. They will not be distributed within the standing order.
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I have a standing order but did not get data. What happened?
There are several possible explanations why you did not receive data:
1) Our operational products/Interim Climate Data Records are processed in an off-line mode and our Service Specifications allow 5-15 days to generate the products. We try to distribute the data as quickly as possible after the day of observations, but sometimes we need to make use of the maximum time delay due to different reasons. If you see an even longer delay of data delivery please check our Service Messages and the Product availability status on our webpage, where we announce issues of delay in data distribution.
2) Your standing order is valid for the most recent version of the product valid at the day you set up the standing order. In case of an update of the product, which involves a new version number of the product, your order process is not valid anymore and we ask you to re-new your standing order for the requested product if you would like to receive the updated product. Updates of version number are announced via our Service Messages on our webpage or you could check via the Web User Interface.
3) A number of data records have been discontinued and are no longer processed at CM SAF for different reasons, e.g., with the start of CDOP-2 and CDOP-3, respectively. More information on discontinued products can be found via the Service Messages as well as via the following two pages: Change Log and Available products.
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Why did I receive the data from my standing order twice?
Products ordered via a standing order are distributed to you the day after they have been generated and stored in our archives. We always try to distribute the products with highest possible quality. However, in some cases there might be a need to re-process data due to e.g., a problem in our processing environment. In these cases we re-calculate the data, exchange them in the data base and distribute it to you again. In these cases please always use the latest distribution of the products.
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Will my standing order expire?
You will receive data for the chosen product continuously as long as the current version number of the product is valid. If we update/change our product which is indicated by a change in the version number we ask you to re-new your standing order if you wish to further retrieve the product. Updates are announced via the Service Messages on our webpage or could be checked via our Web User Interface.
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Can I cancel my standing order?
Yes, you can cancel your standing order at any time if you do not want to receive the product any longer. You can cancel your standing order via the "Order Status" page of our Web User Interface. To cancel your order please login to the WUI, go to the page "Order Status" and show the details of the standing order you want to cancel. There you will find a tick box "unsubscribe standing order No. xxxx".
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I cannot login to the data server to download my order
For each data order you receive an email including a user name and password to login on the CM SAF data server. If you misspell the password provided to you for the data download several times, your IP address will be temporarily blocked and you cannot login to the data server. Please try again later. If you still have problems with the login, please contact the CM SAF User Help Desk via contact.cmsaf@dwd.de
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Which tools can I use to visualise CM SAF products?
You can use any tool able to read the HDF5- or netcdf- format to visualize the CM SAF products. HDF5-files holding the latitude and longitude information of the different areas are available on our webpage Link. The software tool R can also be used to visualize and analyze CM SAF products. The ‘cmsaf’ R-package contains a collection of functions for basic analysis and manipulation of CM SAF netcdf formatted data. The package is part of the CM SAF R TOOLBOX, which consists of the ‘cmsaf’ R-package and a set of R-scripts, which are helpful to work with CM SAF netcdf data.
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What is the meaning of the filenames?
Our filenames follow a naming convention giving in formatoin on product type, statistics, area, projection etc.. The explanation of the naming convention is available via this link.
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How do I get information on the grid/projection of the products?
Information on the projection and resolution of the products is given in the Product User Manuals and the Data Output Format Document. These documents are available in the Documentation section of our webpage.
The header of each product file also holds information on the projection, resolution and scaling factors. The latitude and longitude information can be calculated from the paramters given in the file header. However, it is easier to use the latitude and longitude files provided on our webpage. These can be found at the Auxiliary Data section of the webpage.
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Where do I get latitude/longitude information for my ordered products?
For all currently provided products on regular grids (latitude/longitude or equal area grids) the information is provided within the netcdf-files. For data in original satellite projection CM SAF provides latitude and longitude information on the CM SAF webpage. Please check on https://www.cmsaf.eu/auxdata for the files matching your chosen area and resolution. On the same page land/sea mask and elevation maps are available for most of these areas as well. The links to the respective files are also provided on the DOI landing pages of the chosen product (If you are unsure of the data version, please check the respective attributes in the netcdf files).
If you changed the format from HDF5 to netcdf in your order and/or selected a sub-region or different resolution of the product for your order, the corresponding latitude and longitude information are either included as additional fields in the netcdf-files or provided as separate files together with the data product (depends on chosen product).
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Why are there gaps in the time series of the product I ordered?
In some cases the time series of some CM SAF products shows gaps. These gaps are mainly due to unavailability of required input data. A list on the gaps in the time series of the product is given in the "Detail" section of each product on the Web user Interface (please be aware that sub-daily gaps for e.g. hourly products or level 2 products are not shown). The reason for the gaps and the information whether the gap in the time series can be closed is given in the list of Known product disruptions on our webpage. Please also refer to the corresponding Product User Manuals of the products for further information.
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How can I get information on changes in the products, disruptions etc.?
News and status messages concerning our products and services are provided via our Service messages.
If you are looking for changes in product versions and implemented changes please refer to our Change log page.
Additionally, the information is provided via our Newsletter. Registered users can subscribe to the CM SAF Newsletter via their user profile.
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What are the data formats provided by CM SAF?
All currently available ICDR data and CDR data are provided in netcdf-format (following the CF-convention). Earlier releases (available on demand only) have been provided HDF5-files.
As many users are interested to receive the data in different formats or projections, CM SAF offers a basic set of conversions/transformations on its products by integrating some cdo functionalities into our Web User Interface. Besides the pure conversion of CM SAF HDF5-files into NetCDF format, we offer the opportunity to re-project to a different regular latitude/longitude grid and/or to select a sub-domain.
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How can I contact the responsible scientist for product xy?
If you need assistance concerning the products please contact the User Help Desk via telephone or email. The contact information can be found here. Your request will be forwarded to one of the scientists in the group.
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How can I give feedback or report problems to CM SAF?
Feedback can be given to the CM SAF via our contact email contact.cmsaf@dwd.de. Please also send your specific user requests for products or services improvements or user-side problems with a given CM SAF product to this email address.
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How can I learn more about using satellite data in climate monitoring?
Can I use the data for commercial purposes?
The CM SAF products are provided following the EUMETSAT data policy. Futher information on the EUMETSAT data policy can be found via this link.
All intellectual property rights of the CM SAF products belong to EUMETSAT. The use of these products is granted to every interested user, free of charge. If you wish to use these products, EUMETSAT's copyright credit must be shown by displaying the words "copyright (year) EUMETSAT" on each of the products used.
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Is there any fee for the CM SAF products?
No, the CM SAF products are free of charge. You can order the products once you are registered on our webpage. The data are provided under the EUMETSAT data policy.
All intellectual property rights of the CM SAF products belong to EUMETSAT. The use of these products is granted to every interested user, free of charge. If you wish to use these products, EUMETSAT's copyright credit must be shown by displaying the words "copyright (year) EUMETSAT" on each of the products used.
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Are there publications and/or documents available that demonstrate the value and usefulness of the products, e.g., its quality and exemplary analysis like trend assessments?
Validation Reports, Scientific Reports and operations reports as well as publications on CM SAF products can be found in the documentation section of our webpage
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