Currently, mass loss from Alaskan glaciers contributes to about a third of global mean sea level rise. The 20CRv3-WRF, a high-resolution (4 km) climate dataset, covers southern Alaska and spans from 1837 to 2015, providing extensive temporal coverage for studying long-term climate trends in this highly climate-sensitive region. The dataset was created by downscaling the NOAA-CIRES-DOE 20th Century Reanalysis (20CRv3) using the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF). The downscaling dataset was evaluated for the modern-day period (1981-2015) against the GSOD and PRISM observational datasets for Alaska and compared to ERA5 reanalysis output. The 20CRv3-WRF dataset includes surface variables at 3-hourly intervals (e.g., temperature, precipitation, wind) and atmospheric variables at 6-hourly intervals (e.g., pressure, wind). The primary motivation was to investigate the climate control on tidewater glaciers within southern Alaska, where long-term meteorological records are sparse. However, the 20CRv3-WRF dataset's applicability extends to various fields, including glaciology, hydrology, and biology, offering a valuable resource for diverse climate change studies and research applications. With its high resolution, it can be used as input data for various types of glacier modeling.

For publications that base outcomes on this dataset, authors are required to contact the author to discuss whether co-authorship is warranted and to include the following citations (in addition to the RDA dataset citation): paper when it is published PhD thesis