This dataset contains v4.0 permafrost extent data produced as part of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Climate Change Initiative (CCI) Permafrost project. It forms part of the third version of their Climate Research Data Package (CRDP v3). It is derived from a thermal model driven and constrained by satellite data. CRDPv3 covers the years from 1997 to 2021. Grid products of CDRP v3 are released in annual files, covering the start to the end of the Julian year. This corresponds to average annual ground temperatures (at 2 m depth) which forms the basis for the retrieval of yearly fraction of permafrost-underlain and permafrost-free area within a pixel. A classification according to the IPA (International Permafrost Association) zonation delivers the well-known permafrost zones, distinguishing isolated (0-10%) sporadic (10-50%), discontinuous (50-90%) and continuous permafrost (90-100%). Case A: It covers the Northern Hemisphere (north of 30°) for the period 2003-2021 based on MODIS Land Surface temperature merged with downscaled ERA5 reanalysis near-surface air temperature data.Case B: It covers the Northern Hemisphere (north of 30°) for the period 1997-2002 based on downscaled ERA5 reanalysis near-surface air temperature data which are bias-corrected with the Case A product for the overlap period 2003-2021 using a pixel-specific statistics for each day of the year.