NOAA Global Forecast System (GFS) netCDF Formatted Data

Description

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 GFS data files stored here can be immediately used for OAR/ARL’s NOAA-EPA Atmosphere-Chemistry Coupler Cloud (NACC-Cloud) tool, and are in a Network Common Data Form (netCDF), which is a very common format used across the scientific community. These particular GFS files contain a comprehensive number of global atmosphere/land variables at a relatively high spatiotemporal resolution (approximately 13x13 km horizontal, vertical resolution of 127 levels, and hourly), are not only necessary for the NACC-Cloud tool to adequately drive community air quality applications (e.g., U.S. EPA’s Community Multiscale Air Quality model; https://www.epa.gov/cmaq), but can be very useful for a myriad of other applications in the Earth system modeling communities (e.g., atmosphere, hydrosphere, pedosphere, etc.). While many other data file and record formats are indeed available for Earth system and climate research (e.g., GRIB, HDF, GeoTIFF), the netCDF files here are advantageous to the larger community because of the comprehensive, high spatiotemporal information they contain, and because they are more scalable, appendable, shareable, self-describing, and community-friendly (i.e., many tools available to the community of users). Out of the four operational GFS forecast cycles per day (at 00Z, 06Z, 12Z and 18Z) this particular netCDF dataset is updated daily (/inputs/yyyymmdd/) for the 12Z cycle and includes 24-hr output for both 2D (gfs.t12z.sfcf$0hh.nc) and 3D variables (gfs.t12z.atmf$0hh.nc).

Also available are netCDF formatted Global Land Surface Datasets (GLSDs) developed by Hung et al. (2024). The GLSDs are based on numerous satellite products, and have been gridded to match the GFS spatial resolution (~13x13 km). These GLSDs contain vegetation canopy data (e.g., land surface type, vegetation clumping index, leaf area index, vegetative canopy height, and green vegetation fraction) that are supplemental to and can be combined with the GFS meteorological netCDF data for various applications, including NOAA-ARL's canopy-app. The canopy data variables are climatological, based on satellite data from the year 2020, combined with GFS meteorology for the year 2022, and are created at a daily temporal resolution (/inputs/geo-files/gfs.canopy.t12z.2022mmdd.sfcf000.global.nc)

Update Frequency

Out of the four operational GFS forecast cycles per day (at 00Z, 06Z, 12Z and 18Z) this particular netCDF dataset is updated daily (/yyyymmdd) for the 12Z cycle and includes hourly output out to 24 hours for both 2D (gfs.t12z.sfcf$0hh.nc) and 3D variables (gfs.t12z.atmf$0hh.nc). The data is uploaded daily at ~ 1800 UTC.

The climatological GLDSs (including vegetative canopy data variables) are updated on an as-needed basis when new sources, methods, and advancements become available.

License

NOAA data disseminated through NODD are open to the public and can be used as desired.

NOAA makes data openly available to ensure maximum use of our data, and to spur and encourage exploration and innovation throughout the industry. NOAA requests attribution for the use or dissemination of unaltered NOAA data. However, it is not permissible to state or imply endorsement by or affiliation with NOAA. If you modify NOAA data, you may not state or imply that it is original, unaltered NOAA data.

Documentation

NACC Landing Page at NOAA-ARL , NACC GitHub, NACC-Cloud Link, Canopy-App, NCEI GLSDs, Hung et al., 2024

Managed By

See all datasets managed by NOAA.

Contact

For questions regarding data content or quality, visit the OAR NACC site or contact rick.jiang@noaa.gov or patrick.c.campbell@noaa.gov. 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) netCDF Formatted Data was accessed on DATE from https://registry.opendata.aws/noaa-oar-arl-nacc-pds.

Usage Examples

Publications

• NOAA’s Global Forecast System Data in the Cloud for Community Air Quality Modeling. Atmosphere 2023, 14, 1110. by Campbell, P.C.; Jiang, W.; Moon, Z.; Zinn, S.; Tang, Y.
  
• U.S. EPA’s application of NOAA’s GFS netCDF data on AWS and NACC-Cloud: 'Expedited modeling of burn events results (EMBER): A screening-level dataset of 2023 ozone fire impacts in the US.' by Simon et al.