ECMWF IFS High-Resolution Operational Forecasts 

ECMWF has implemented a significant resolution upgrade and methodology for high-resolution forecasts
(HRES) and ensemble forecasts (ENS) beginning January of 2016. HRES is now performed via a transform
grid with a nominal grid point spacing of 9 kilometers (0.08 degrees), and is carried out with IFS
(Integrated Forecast System). Improvements in computational efficiency and
effective resolution have been brought about by implementing a triangular cubic octahedral
reduced Gaussian grid in which the shortest spatial wavelength is represented by at least four
grid points anywhere on the globe, as opposed to the former linear arrangement whereby the
shortest wavelength was represented by two grid points, while at the same time retaining the same number
of spherical harmonics and triangular truncation. (The term "cubic" is due to the ability of the grid to
represent cubic products in the dynamical equations.) In addition, the reduction of grid points along latitude
circles as one approaches the poles is achieved using a triangular to octahedral mapping which
corresponds to a poleward reduction of four points per latitude circle and an optimization of the
total number of grid points and their local mesh resolution.  ECMWF has
documented superior filtering properties at higher resolution, an improved representation of orography,
improved global mass conservation properties, substantial efficiency gains, and more scalable locally
compact computations of derivatives and other properties that depend on nearest-neighbor information only.
More details may be found in the publications cited below.

NCAR's DECS is performing and supplying a grid transformed version of HRES IFS,
in which variables originally represented as spectral coefficients or archived on a reduced Gaussian grid
are transformed to a regular 5120 longitude by 2560 latitude N1280 Gaussian grid. In addition, DECS is also
computing horizontal winds (u-component, v-component) from spectral vorticity and divergence where these
are available.

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Temporal Range

  • Begin:  2016-01-01T0000+00
    End:  2025-10-07T0000+00

Keywords

Resource Type dataset
Temporal Range Begin 2016-01-01T0000+00
Temporal Range End 2025-10-07T0000+00
Temporal Resolution N/A
Bounding Box North Lat 89.946
Bounding Box South Lat -89.946
Bounding Box West Long -180.0
Bounding Box East Long 180.0
Spatial Representation grid
Spatial Resolution 0.07 degree
Related Links

Related Resource #1 : Tool to convert NetCDF data to WRF Intermediate file format
Additional Information N/A
Resource Format WMO GRIB1
NetCDF4
Standardized Resource Format NetCDF
GRIB
Asset Size 259612327.356 MB
Legal Constraints

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Access Constraints There are no restrictions.
Software Implementation Language N/A

Resource Support Name N/A
Resource Support Email datahelp@ucar.edu
Resource Support Organization N/A
Distributor NSF NCAR Geoscience Data Exchange
Metadata Contact Name N/A
Metadata Contact Email datahelp@ucar.edu
Metadata Contact Organization NSF NCAR Geoscience Data Exchange

Author European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
Publisher NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research
Publication Date 2016-06-20
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) https://doi.org/10.5065/D68050ZV
Alternate Identifier d113001
Resource Version N/A
Topic Category climatologyMeteorologyAtmosphere
Progress onGoing
Metadata Date 2025-10-09T01:47:26Z
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.gdex::d113001
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. (2016). ECMWF IFS High-Resolution Operational Forecasts. NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research. https://doi.org/10.5065/D68050ZV. Accessed 09 October 2025.

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