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Download TerraClimate netCDF Data Files to Extract their Data Offline

Source: R/terraclimate.R
ini_terraclimate.Rd

This function facilitates the download of TerraClimate netCDF files for a specified time period and climate variables. TerraClimate data provides monthly climate data for global terrestrial surfaces, and this function allows you to store the data locally for offline extraction and analysis without the need to download the entire dataset.

Users can specify a range of climate variables such as precipitation, temperature, evapotranspiration, soil moisture, and more. The downloaded files are saved in netCDF format, making them accessible for subsequent offline analysis.

Usage

ini_terraclimate(
  from = "2019-09-01",
  to = "2022-06-30",
  clim_vars = c("ppt", "tmin", "tmax"),
  data_path = "./data/",
  timeout = 300
)

Arguments

from

Start date as a string in the 'YYYY-MM-DD' format. This defines the beginning of the time period for which you want to download the climate data.

to

End date as a string in the 'YYYY-MM-DD' format. This defines the end of the time period for which you want to download the climate data.

clim_vars

A list of climate variables to download. Valid options include: aet (Actual Evapotranspiration), def (Climate Water Deficit), pet (Potential Evapotranspiration), ppt (Precipitation), q (Runoff), soil (Soil Moisture), srad (Solar Radiation), swe (Snow Water Equivalent), tmax (Maximum Temperature), tmin (Minimum Temperature), vap (Vapor Pressure), ws (Wind Speed), vpd (Vapor Pressure Deficit), and PDSI (Palmer Drought Severity Index). If NULL (default), all available variables will be downloaded.

data_path

A string containing the directory path where the downloaded netCDF files will be stored. The default path is './data/'.

timeout

Timeout in seconds for downloading each netCDF raster file. The default value is 300 seconds.

Value

No explicit return value. The downloaded netCDF files are saved to the specified directory for offline use with the get_terraclimate function to extract data for a given coordinate or set of coordinates.

See also

get_terraclimate

Author

Khaled Al-Shamaa, k.el-shamaa@cgiar.org

Examples

if (interactive()) {
  # Initialize TerraClimate data download for specific climate variables between two dates
  ini_terraclimate('2018-09-01', '2019-06-30', c('ppt', 'tmin', 'tmax'))
  
  # Coordinates for the location(s) of interest
  x <- c(-6.716, 35.917, 76.884)
  y <- c(33.616, 33.833, 23.111)
  
  # Extract TerraClimate data for the specified coordinates (online mode)
  a <- get_terraclimate(y, x, '2018-09-01', '2019-06-30', c('ppt', 'tmin', 'tmax'))
  
  # View the extracted climate data and bioclimatic variables
  View(a$climate[[1]])
  View(a$biovars[[1]])
  
  # Extract TerraClimate data for the specified coordinates (offline mode)
  b <- get_terraclimate(y, x, '2018-09-01', '2019-06-30', c('ppt', 'tmin', 'tmax'), offline = TRUE)
  
  # View the offline-extracted data
  View(b$climate[[1]])
  View(b$biovars[[1]])
}