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UFS GDAS PDS·dataset

Test data for weather model initialization (NOAA)

NOAA Global Data Assimilation (DA) Test Data
atmosphere NOAA NOAA active
In plain English

What it measures. Test data from the system that gathers observations and weaves them onto a 3-D grid to give weather models their starting conditions.

How it's made. NOAA's Global Data Assimilation System pulls in surface, balloon, aircraft, buoy, radar, and satellite observations as part of the Unified Forecast System.

How & where you'd use it. It is a behind-the-scenes input for developers improving how forecasts get initialized, rather than a forecast product for the public.

What's measured

aws-pdsagricultureclimatedisaster responseenvironmentalmeteorologicalweather

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span— → ongoing

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 Unified Forecast System (UFS) is a community-based, coupled, comprehensive Earth Modeling System. It supports multiple applications with different forecast durations and spatial domains. The Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) Application (App) is being used as the basis for uniting the Global Workflow and Global Forecast System (GFS) model with Joint Effort for Data assimilation Integration (JEDI) capabilities. The National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) use GDAS to interpolate data from various observing systems and instruments onto a three-dimensional grid. GDAS obtains its data through several observation types: surface, balloon, wind profilers, aircraft reports, buoys, radar, and satellite. This gridded output data is then used to initialize the GFS model. GDAS can be used in standalone mode to run forward operators and variational data assimilation (DA) for evaluation/development purposes. In the GDAS App, it supports GFS/GDAS cycled forecasts in the Global Workflow. Currently, GDAS primarily uses GSI for its data assimilation and cycling, but efforts are underway to replace GSI with JEDI.

Get the data

noaa_access.py
# NOAA Open Data on AWS — public S3, no login
import s3fs

fs = s3fs.S3FileSystem(anon=True)
# find this dataset's bucket in the docs link in the sidebar, then:
# files = fs.ls("noaa-<bucket>/...")
# open NetCDF/GRIB with xarray, COGs with rioxarray
NOAA Open Data is on public AWS S3 — no login at all (anonymous access).