Identification

Title

Global Meteorological Forcing Dataset for Land Surface Modeling

Alternative title(s)

d314000

Abstract

A global dataset of meteorological forcings has been developed that can be used to drive models of land surface hydrology. The dataset is constructed by combining a suite of global observation-based datasets with the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis. Known biases in the reanalysis precipitation and near-surface meteorology have been shown to exert an erroneous effect on modeled land surface water and energy budgets and are thus corrected using observation-based datasets of precipitation, air temperature and radiation. Corrections are also made to the rain day statistics of the reanalysis precipitation which have been found to exhibit a spurious wave-like pattern in high-latitude wintertime. Wind-induced low measurement of solid precipitation is removed using the results from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Solid Precipitation Measurement Intercomparison. Precipitation is disaggregated in space to 1.0 degree and 0.25 degree by statistical downscaling using relationships developed with the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) daily product. Disaggregation in time from daily to 3-hourly is accomplished similarly, using the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3-hourly real-time dataset. Other meteorological variables (downward short- and longwave, specific humidity, surface air pressure and wind speed) are downscaled in space with account for changes in elevation. The dataset is evaluated against the bias-corrected forcing dataset of the second Global Soil Wetness Project. The final product provides a long-term, globally-consistent dataset of near-surface meteorological variables that can be used to drive models of the terrestrial hydrologic and ecological processes for the study of seasonal and interannual variability and for the evaluation of coupled models and other land surface prediction schemes.

Resource type

dataset

Resource locator

https://gdex.ucar.edu/datasets/d314000/

protocol: https

applicationProfile: browser

name: Dataset Description

description: Related Link

function: information

https://gdex.ucar.edu/datasets/d314000/dataaccess/

protocol: https

applicationProfile: browser

name: Data Access

description: Related Link

function: download

Unique resource identifier

code

codeSpace

Dataset language

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

climatologyMeteorologyAtmosphere

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

dataset

originating controlled vocabulary

title

reference date

date type

revision

effective date

2014-10-16

Keyword set

keyword value

GRIDDING METHODS

originating controlled vocabulary

title

reference date

date type

revision

effective date

2025-09-19

Keyword set

keyword value

EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC WINDS > SURFACE WINDS

EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR > WATER VAPOR INDICATORS > HUMIDITY

EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION > LONGWAVE RADIATION

EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION > SHORTWAVE RADIATION

EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE > SURFACE PRESSURE

EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > PRECIPITATION > PRECIPITATION AMOUNT

EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE > SURFACE TEMPERATURE > AIR TEMPERATURE

originating controlled vocabulary

title

reference date

date type

revision

effective date

2025-09-19

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

-180

East bounding longitude

180

North bounding latitude

90

South bounding latitude

-90

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

1948-01-01T00:00:00Z

End position

2010-12-31T21:00:00Z

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2006-11-28

Frequency of update

notPlanned

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

organisation name

NSF NCAR - Geoscience Data Exchange

full postal address

National Center for Atmospheric Research

CISL/DECS

P.O. Box 3000

Boulder

80307

U.S.A.

telephone number

(303)-497-1833

facsimile number

303-497-1291

email address

chifan@ucar.edu

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

organisation name

NSF NCAR Geoscience Data Exchange

full postal address

NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research

CISL/DECS

P.O. Box 3000

Boulder

80307

U.S.A.

facsimile number

303-497-1291

email address

datahelp@ucar.edu

web address

https://gdex.ucar.edu/

name: NSF NCAR Geoscience Data Exchange

description: The NSF NCAR Geoscience Data Exchange - Integrated Research Data Commons (GDEX) contains an extensive collection of meteorological, atmospheric composition, and oceanographic observations and model outputs to support Earth System Science research. GDEX supports "data proximate" computational research through its integration with NSF NCAR High Performance Compute services [https://arc.ucar.edu/resources], which are made accessible to US researchers through a range of allocations opportunities [https://arc.ucar.edu/xras_submit/opportunities].

function: downlaod

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2025-10-03T00:25:05Z

Metadata language