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Full catalog/NLDAS_NOAH0125_M
NLDAS_NOAH0125_M·v2.0·dataset

Modeled soil and water for North America (monthly, 0.125 deg)

NLDAS Noah Land Surface Model L4 Monthly 0.125 x 0.125 degree V2.0 (NLDAS_NOAH0125_M) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 4 active
In plain English

What it measures. Fifty-two modeled measures of conditions at the land surface across North America, including rainfall, snowfall, snowmelt, water running off the surface and below ground, soil moisture and temperature, and how much water evaporates, reported as monthly totals or averages.

How it's made. Simulated by the Noah land-surface model as part of the North American Land Data Assimilation System, on a fine grid, rather than measured directly by a satellite.

How & where you'd use it. Supports drought monitoring, water-supply and flood studies, and farming and ecosystem research across North America going back to 1979.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › HEAT FLUXATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › LONGWAVE RADIATIONATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › SHORTWAVE RADIATIONATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE › SURFACE TEMPERATUREATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR › WATER VAPOR PROCESSES › EVAPORATIONATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR › WATER VAPOR PROCESSES › EVAPOTRANSPIRATIONATMOSPHERE › PRECIPITATION › LIQUID PRECIPITATION › RAINATMOSPHERE › PRECIPITATION › SOLID PRECIPITATION › SNOWBIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › CANOPY CHARACTERISTICSBIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › LEAF CHARACTERISTICSBIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › VEGETATION COVERLAND SURFACE › SOILS › SOIL MOISTURE/WATER CONTENTLAND SURFACE › SOILS › SOIL TEMPERATURELAND SURFACE › SURFACE RADIATIVE PROPERTIES › ALBEDO

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1979-01-01 → ongoing
  • Measured byNoah-LSM (NOT APPLICABLE)
  • Processing levelLevel 4
  • Spatial extent-125, 25, -67, 53
  • StatusACTIVE

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

This data set contains fifty-two fields simulated from the Noah land-surface model (LSM) for Phase 2 of the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS-2). The data are in 1/8th degree grid spacing and range from Jan 1979 to the present. The temporal resolution is monthly. The file format is netCDF (converted from the GRIB format). The NLDAS-2 monthly Noah model data, containing fifty-two fields, were generated from the NLDAS-2 hourly Noah model data, as monthly accumulation for rainfall, snowfall, subsurface runoff, surface runoff, total evapotranspiration, snow melt, and monthly averages for other variables. The monthly period of each month is from 00Z at start of the month to 23:59Z at end of the month, with the exception of the very first month in the data set (Jan 1979) which starts at 00Z 02 Jan 1979. Also for the first month (Jan 1979), because the variables listed as instantaneous in the README file do not have valid data exactly on 00Z 02 Jan 1979, and this one hour is not included in the average for this month only. Details about the NLDAS-2 configuration of the Noah LSM can be found in Xia et al. (2012).

Get the data

nldas_noah0125_m_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="NLDAS_NOAH0125_M",
    version="2.0",
    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.