I need monthly tmin, tmax, tmean and precipitation data for Antarctica, ideally gridded at 0.5° spatial resolution. I am well aware of that climate stations are sparse (both temporally and spatially) in Antarctica but is there a product which nevertheless can be recommended?
Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) dataset daily at 1 degree resolution and monthly at 2.5 degrees resolution provides precipitation measurements for Antarctica. The data over land comes mainly from the precipitation gauges, which is resampled on the grid.
For combined temperature and precipitation fields you can also look at "Global (land) precipitation and temperature by Willmott & Matsuura" dataset (link below). It lacks tmin and tmax though, but comes on 0.5 degree grid.
https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu/climate-data/global-land-precipitation-and-temperature-willmott-matsuura-university-delaware
I am partly responsible for the GPCP precip data Mikhail mentioned. It's pretty shaky due to the very limited surface data (a few stations around the edge and a couple in the middle) and very approximate satellite estimates. The only practical alternative would be model assimilation products. I'm guessing these aren't so bad for temperature (which GPCP lacks), but perhaps only a general guide for precip (which might be an interesting comparison).
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