Community Earth System Model Large Ensemble (CESM LENS) Data Sets on AWS

The NCAR CESM-LENS dataset is a 40-member ensemble of climate simulations for 1920-2100 with slightly different initial conditions. All model runs use the same radiative forcing scenario: historical up to 2005, and RCP8.5 (high emissions) thereafter. The dataset includes both surface (2D) and volumetric (3D) variables in the atmosphere, ocean, land, and ice domains.

A subset of the dataset (data volume ~70 TB) including the most useful variables is freely available on AWS S3 thanks to the AWS Open Data Sponsorship Program and the Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative, which provide free storage and egress.

The data on AWS is stored in Zarr format. This format supports the same data model as netCDF and is well suited to object storage and distributed computing in the cloud using the Pangeo libraries in Python.

The full dataset (data volume ~500 TB) can be accessed for download or via web services on the NCAR Climate Data Gateway. [https://www.cesm.ucar.edu/projects/community-projects/LENS/data-sets.html]

To Access Resource:

This Resource Belongs to the Following Collection:

Questions? Email Resource Support Contact:

  • CESM-LENS Help
    cisl-aws-lens@ucar.edu
    UCAR/NCAR - Computational & Information Systems Lab - Information Systems Division

Temporal Range

  • Begin:  1920-01-01T12:00:00
    End:  2100-12-31T12:00:00

Keywords

Resource Type dataset
Temporal Range Begin 1920-01-01T12:00:00
Temporal Range End 2100-12-31T12:00:00
Temporal Resolution Hourly, daily, monthly, seasonal, annual, monthly climatology, and seasonal climatology
Bounding Box North Lat 90
Bounding Box South Lat -90
Bounding Box West Long -180
Bounding Box East Long 180
Spatial Representation grid
Spatial Resolution 1.0 degree
Related Links

Related Software and Documentation : Jupyter Notebook, other documentation, and software tools
Additional Information N/A
Resource Format ZARR
Standardized Resource Format ZARR
Asset Size 70000000 MB
Legal Constraints

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (See also https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode )
Access Constraints Access constraints: (https://www.ucar.edu/terms-of-use/data)
Software Implementation Language N/A

Resource Support Name CESM-LENS Help
Resource Support Email cisl-aws-lens@ucar.edu
Resource Support Organization UCAR/NCAR - Computational & Information Systems Lab - Information Systems Division
Distributor N/A
Metadata Contact Name CESM-LENS Help
Metadata Contact Email cisl-aws-lens@ucar.edu
Metadata Contact Organization UCAR/NCAR - Computational & Information Systems Lab - Information Systems Division

Author de La Beaujardiere, Jeff
Banihirwe, Anderson
Shih, C.-F.
Paul, Kevin
Hamman, Joe
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - CISL
Publication Date 2019-04-15
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) https://doi.org/10.26024/wt24-5j82
Alternate Identifier N/A
Resource Version 2.2
Topic Category N/A
Progress completed
Metadata Date 2022-12-08T14:17:52
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.cisl::cesm-lens-aws
Metadata Language eng
Suggested Citation de La Beaujardiere, Jeff, Banihirwe, Anderson, Shih, C.-F., Paul, Kevin, Hamman, Joe. (2019). Community Earth System Model Large Ensemble (CESM LENS) Data Sets on AWS. 2.2. UCAR/NCAR - CISL. https://doi.org/10.26024/wt24-5j82. Accessed 31 October 2025.

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