Typical monthly land water and weather (Africa, Noah)
What it measures. A typical, average year of land conditions broken into 12 monthly files, covering modeled land-surface water and weather variables across the globe (with an Africa-focused heritage) at about 10-kilometer detail.
How it's made. Produced by the Noah land model within NASA's FLDAS system, averaging 35 years (1982-2016) of data driven by MERRA-2 weather and CHIRPS rainfall into a month-by-month climate baseline.
How & where you'd use it. Serves as a 'normal' reference for comparing current land and water conditions, supporting famine early warning, drought monitoring, and food-security work.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span1982-01-01 → 2016-12-31
- Measured byNoah-LSM (NOT APPLICABLE)
- Processing levelLevel 4
- Spatial extent-180, -60, 180, 90
- StatusCOMPLETE
What you can do with it
- Map air pollutants — NO₂, aerosols, ozone
- Track greenhouse gases and Earth's energy budget
- Feed weather and air-quality analysis
Official description
The monthly climatology dataset contains a series of land surface parameters simulated from the Noah 3.6.1 model in the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) Land Data Assimilation System (FLDAS). The dataset comprises of 12 monthly files, each representing the monthly data averaged over 35 years from 1982 to 2016, based on the FLDAS Noah Land Surface Model L4 Global Monthly 0.1 x 0.1 degree (MERRA-2 and CHIRPS) V001 (FLDAS_NOAH01_C_GL_M_001) monthly data. The data are in 0.10 degree resolution and the spatial coverage is global (60S, 180W, 90N, 180E). The FLDAS regional monthly climatology datasets will no longer be available and have been superseded by the global monthly climatology dataset. More information about the monthly FLDAS can be found from the dataset landing page for FLDAS_NOAH01_C_GL_M_001 and the FLDAS README document. In November 2020, all FLDAS data were post-processed with the MOD44W MODIS land mask. Previously, some grid boxes over inland water were considered as over land and, thus, had non-missing values. The post-processing corrected this issue and masked out all model output data over inland water; the post-processing did not affect the meteorological forcing variables. More information on this can be found in the FLDAS README document, and the MOD44W MODIS land mask is available on the FLDAS Project site. If you had downloaded any FLDAS data prior to November 2020, please download the data again to receive the post-processed data.
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="FLDAS_NOAH01_C_GL_MC",
version="001",
bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9), # your area (W,S,E,N)
temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"), # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results) # stream straight from GES_DISC Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package. Official links
- Access the data via HTTPS. GET DATA
- Use the Earthdata Search to find and retrieve data sets across multiple data centers. GET DATA
- Access the data via the OPeNDAP protocol. USE SERVICE API
- README Document VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- How to read and plot the data. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- GES DISC Hydrology Documentation VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- The MOD44W MODIS Water Mask is the standard land/sea mask for FLDAS, and is available for download. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION