I was wondering if there is any version information embedded in the netCDFs that could be used to distinguish if the ERA5 data has changed?
As an example, one of the variables I work with is the 10-metere neutral wind in the ERA5 hourly single level product. The data for 2025-01-05 was reprocessed after its initial release as captured by this announcement:
ERA5 data from 1st January 2025 was degraded and is being corrected
The 10-metere U and V components changed from when I first pulled the data on 2025-01-11 to when I pulled them on 2025-03-28. There is a “version” tag in the _NCProperties, but it is set to 2 on both files. There is a “history” metadata field I can see what looks like the version of the GRIB to netCDF, but I am unsure if that is exactly what I want. My guess is that program will be updated more frequently than the actual data changes.
Previous: “GRIB to CDM+CF via cfgrib-0.9.14.1/ecCodes-2.36.0”
Latest: “GRIB to CDM+CF via cfgrib-0.9.15.0/ecCodes-2.39.0”
My primary goal here is to find some kind of version identifier so I can know if the data I already have pulled down is the same as the latest data on the ERA5 site and so that I can ensure my colleagues and I can are working with the same ERA5 data.
Thanks!