NOAA Global Forecast System (GFS)

Description

NOTE - Upgrade NCEP Global Forecast System to v16.3.0 - Effective November 29, 2022 See notification HERE

The Global Forecast System (GFS) is a weather forecast model produced by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). Dozens of atmospheric and land-soil variables are available through this dataset, from temperatures, winds, and precipitation to soil moisture and atmospheric ozone concentration. The entire globe is covered by the GFS at a base horizontal resolution of 18 miles (28 kilometers) between grid points, which is used by the operational forecasters who predict weather out to 16 days in the future. Horizontal resolution drops to 44 miles (70 kilometers) between grid point for forecasts between one week and two weeks.

The NOAA Global Forecast Systems (GFS) Warm Start Initial Conditions are produced by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction Center (NCEP) to run operational deterministic medium-range numerical weather predictions.
The GFS is built with the GFDL Finite-Volume Cubed-Sphere Dynamical Core (FV3) and the Grid-Point Statistical Interpolation (GSI) data assimilation system.
Please visit the links below in the Documentation section to find more details about the model and the data assimilation systems. The current operational GFS is run at 64 layers in the vertical extending from the surface to the upper stratosphere and on six cubic-sphere tiles at the C768 or 13-km horizontal resolution. A new version of the GFS that has 127 layers extending to the mesopause will be implemented for operation on February 3, 2021. These initial conditions are made available four times per day for running forecasts at the 00Z, 06Z, 12Z and 18Z cycles, respectively. For each cycle, the dataset contains the first guess of the atmosphere states found in the directory ./gdas.yyyymmdd/hh-6/RESTART, which are 6-hour GDAS forecast from the last cycle, and atmospheric analysis increments and surface analysis for the current cycle found in the directory ./gfs.yyyymmdd/hh, which are produced by the data assimilation systems.

Update Frequency

4 times a day, every 6 hours starting at midnight UTC

License

Open Data. There are no restrictions on the use of this data.

Documentation

https://www.emc.ncep.noaa.gov/emc/pages/numerical_forecast_systems/gfs.php

Managed By

See all datasets managed by NOAA.

Contact

For questions regarding data content or quality, visit the NOAA GFS site. For any questions regarding data delivery or any general questions regarding the NOAA Open Data Dissemination (NODD) Program, email the NODD Team at nodd@noaa.gov.
We also seek to identify case studies on how NOAA data is being used and will be featuring those stories in joint publications and in upcoming events. If you are interested in seeing your story highlighted, please share it with the NODD team by emailing nodd@noaa.gov

How to Cite

NOAA Global Forecast System (GFS) was accessed on DATE from https://registry.opendata.aws/noaa-gfs-bdp-pds.

Usage Examples

Publications

• GFS Warm Restart Files Additional Information by Fanglin Yang
  
• Toward the Next Generation of Microwave Sounders: Benefits of a Low-Earth Orbit Hyperspectral Microwave Instrument in All- Weather Conditions using AI by Eric S. Maddy
  
• Validation and Application of the Accu-Waves Operational Platform for Wave Forecasts at Ports by Christos Makris et al.