Sample Data

Analysis Data

Observational Data

Where can I find analyses for input to REGRID?

At NCAR:

• Some datasets (marked * below) have the last years' data available on-line
• For older data and other datasets:
  • You can either obtain data from NCAR by applying for an NCAR computing account. If you have an NCAR computing account, you will be able to access all these datasets without additional charge.
  • OR you can purchasing data from the Data Support Section of NCAR's Scientific Computing Division.

Some of the more commonly-used analyses archived at NCAR include:

• NCEP GDAS (ds082.0 and ds083.0*)

• NCEP Final Analysis (FNL) (ds083.2**)

• NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis (ds090.0**)

• NCEP/DOE Reanalysis 2 (ds091.0)

• NCEP Eta analyses and forecasts (ds609.2*)

• ECMWF TOGA Global Analysis (ds111.2)

• ECMWF Reanalysis ERA15 (ds115)

• ECMWF Reanalysis ER40 (ds118)

For MM5 LSM option (ISOIL=2):

• The dataset marked with an * above contain sufficient data to run MM5 LSM option.
   
• A recent addition which can also be used as input to the Noah LSM option, is the AGRMET data supplied by AFWA.
   
• Real-time data from Eta, AVN and FNL available from NCEP ftp site also contain data sufficient to run the LSM option. Below are some examples of datasets and filenames used at the NCEP ftp site:
  • Eta 40 km data:
       eta/prod/eta.YYYYMMDD/eta.tXXz.awip3dYY.tm00
       (eg. eta/prod/eta.20021223/eta.t18z.awip3d12.tm00 )
  • GFS/AVN 1deg data:
       avn/prod/avn.YYYYMMDD/gblav.tXXz.pgrbfYY
       (eg. avn/prod/avn.20021223/gblav.t12z.pgrbf12 )
  • FNL 1deg data:
      fnl/prod/fnl.YYYYMMDD/gdas1.tXXz.pgrbfYY
      (eg. fnl/prod/fnl.20021223/gdas1.t12z.pgrbf12 )

For MM5 polar physics (IPOLAR=1):

• Seaice fractional data is available from the Near Real-TimeSSM/I EASE-Grid Daily Global Ice Concentration and Snow Extent. Boulder, CO, USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center.  
• This data can be obtained from their web site (Note: this is NOT NCAR data):
    http://nsidc.org/data/nise1.html
• Please become a registered user before downloading data (no charge).

Note also that even though we have scripts to get the data automatically, it is always a good practice to check the data catalogs (or file lists) for extra information. If the data have missing times or errors, they are likely to be described in the document.  
  

Other data sources:

• If you are interested in running MM5 in real-time, a good source of data can be obtained from NCEP's ftp server: ftp://ftpprd.ncep.noaa.gov/pub/data/nccf/com. NCEP provides a number of datasets from their global and regional models at this site.