Table of Contents


What is it?

The Documentation Centre is is the gateway to quality-assured information about Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) products and services. The C3S Documentation Centre has 2 components


The C3S Knowledge Base (CKB)

The C3S Knowledge Base (CKB) is a trusted source of reference information for users and it contains information that is critical for the correct usage of Copernicus data (e.g. data format, units conversions or API errors). The CKB is also the repository for some of the documentation of the datasets of the C3S Climate Data Store (CDS). The CKB is constantly evolving as new content is added.


The C3S Quality Assurance Reports (QARs)

C3S Quality Assurance Reports (QARs) are fully integrated into the Climate Data Store (CDS) environment. The QARs are presented as interactive Synthesis Tables accessible via the "Quality Assessment" tab (starting with selected catalogue entries as shown below for ERA5-Land hourly data from 1950 to present).

The QARs cover all aspects of quality assurance as described by the provider and further include independent scientific assessments, focusing on satellite observations and reanalysis. The QARs are one of the components of the Evaluation and Quality Control (EQC) service.


Documentation Centre in C3S User Support Journey

The Documentation Centre is the second step (Step 2) of the C3S User Support Journey as shown below.


This document has been produced in the context of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).

The activities leading to these results have been contracted by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, operator of C3S on behalf of the European Union (Delegation Agreement signed on 11/11/2014 and Contribution Agreement signed on 22/07/2021). All information in this document is provided "as is" and no guarantee or warranty is given that the information is fit for any particular purpose.

The users thereof use the information at their sole risk and liability. For the avoidance of all doubt , the European Commission and the European Centre for Medium - Range Weather Forecasts have no liability in respect of this document, which is merely representing the author's view.

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