Welcome to the Global Energy Balance Archive

The Global Energy Balance Archive (GEBA) is a central database for the instrumentally measured energy fluxes at the Earth's surface, maintained by the Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences at ETH Zurich. GEBA stores monthly means of the various energy balance components observed at worldwide distributed stations. Technical support of the database and its web user interface is provided by the IT Services of ETH. The database can be accessed in the "Data Retrieval" menu (> See overview), after registration and approval.

For the latest information about GEBA's status and developments, please check the News.

GEBA data are used for (see publication list)

the estimation of the global energy balance
the detection of decadal changes in the energy balance components, such as a long term variations in surface solar radiation ("global dimmming and brightening")
the validation of surface energy fluxes simulated by climate models and reanalyses
the validation of remote sensing algorithms
studies on the absorption of solar radiation in the atmosphere
applied studies, e.g. in the areas of solar power generation, water management, agriculture and tourism

Additional Information

Data Availability and Exchange

The GEBA data are available at no cost for bona fide research. New users register by filling in the registration form.

When acknowledging GEBA, the following statement should be made: "GEBA is co-funded by the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss within the framework of GCOS Switzerland."

Institutions willing to offer data to the GEBA as well as users needing support (or for providing feedback) are kindly invited to contact us.

Last update of page content: 21.09.2022

Main content

Welcome to the Global Energy Balance Archive

GEBA data are used for (see publication list)