Links to the Global Atmospheric Reanalysis Datasets
(for monthly-mean data click)
- ERA-Interim (click)
- Period: January 1979 - present
- Format: GRIB or netCDF
- Note: Data can be downloaded from:
(click;
either "Full" or "Low" resolution)
- Note: One time registration is necessary.
- Note: ECMWF data FAQ answers many of your questions.
- References:
Dee et al. 2011
- ERA-40 (click)
- Period: September 1957 - August 2002
- Format: GRIB or netCDF
- Note: Data can be downloaded from: (click)
- Note: One time registration is necessary.
- Note: ECMWF data FAQ answers many of your questions.
- References:
Uppala et al. 2005
- JRA-55 (click)
- Period: January 1958 - present
- Format: GRIB
- Note: Registration (to get ID and password) is necessary to download data.
- Note: Monthly data are now available (October 2013).
JRA-55 data will be also available from other, non-JMA websites.
See the release schedule at the JRA-55 website for further details.
- References:
Ebita et al. 2011
- JRA-25/JCDAS (click)
- Period: January 1979 - December 2013(?)
- Format: GRIB (or 4-byte big_endian for Monthly Means)
- Note: Registration (to get ID and password) is necessary to download data.
- Note: The distribution of the JRA-25/JCDAS data
(from the JMA site) will be terminated at the end of February 2014.
But, JRA-25/JCDAS data will still be available through
NCAR's Research Data Archive.
- References:
Onogi et al. 2007; see also
Ebita et al. 2011
- MERRA (click)
- Period: January 1979 - present
- Format: HDF or netCDF
- Note: Data can be downloaded from: (click) (See "Data Access Methods" in this
NASA page carefully; or, as an example,
see "for monthly-mean data click" above)
- Note: Longitude is from -180 through 0 to +180 degree,
and latitude is from -90 through 0 to +90 degree.
- Note: MERRA netCDF files do not contain the unit information.
See
File Specification documents for the unit and other detailed
information.
- References:
Rienecker et al. 2011
- NCEP CFSR (click)
- Period: January 1979 - December 2009
- Format: GRIB2
- Note: Data can be downloaded from another website: (click)
- References:
Saha et al. 2010;
Saha et al. 2010 supplement
- NCEP/DOE AMIP-II (R2) (click)
- Period: January 1979 - present
- Format: netCDF
- References:
Kanamitsu et al. 2002
- NCEP/NCAR (R1) (click)
- Period: January 1948 - present
- Format: netCDF
- References:
Kalnay et al. 1996;
Kistler et al. 2001;
see also references for R2 and CFSR
- NOAA-CIRES 20CR (click)
- Period: January 1871 - December 2010 (for Version 2)
(1908-1958 for Version 1)
- Format: netCDF
- References:
Compo et al. 2011
Information on the Reanalyses
- Reanalyses.org:"Reanalysis Intercomparison and Observation"
(click)
- The reanalysis website prepared by the reanalysis centers.
- NCAR's Research Data Archive
(click)
- NCAR's reanalysis data archive. Most reanalysis data
(except for NASA-MERRA) can be found.
- Note: You will create your own request at the site,
and receive an email (maybe one day later or much sooner)
to get the data files using a wget shell script file.
- Note: Unfortunately, ECMWF data archived at this site cannot be
distributed to scientists outside the USA, who
need to go to the ECMWF's official website (see below).
- NCAR/CGD's Data Catalog
(click)
- NCAR/CGD's Climate Analysis Section summarizes
the reanalysis data information.
- NCAR's Climate Data Guide
(click)
- An NCAR's website summarizes the reanalysis data information
(click "Data").
Useful Tools
- NCAR Command Language (NCL) (click)
-
ncl_convert2nc can convert various file types (including GRIB,
GRIB2, and HDF) into netCDF.
Note that the options "-nc4c -c 1" will give you a "nc4" file
whose size is much smaller than a "nc" file;
but, you need a higher version of netCDF to handle "nc4" files
(see
netCDF FAQ, Formats etc. for the details).
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