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NLDAS: North American Land Data Assimilation System

Climate Data Guide Image: NLDAS July 1980-2009 climatologies

The goal of the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) is to construct quality-controlled, and spatially and temporally consistent, land-surface model (LSM) datasets from the best available observations and model output to support modeling activities. Data sets are available on hourly, daily, monthly and climatological time scales. NLDAS products are used in modeling, research, and applications, such as drought and flood monitoring, watershed and water quality management, and case studies of extreme events.

There are two phases referred to as NLDAS-1 and NLDAS-2. The latter spans January 1979-present. "NLDAS (Mitchell et al., 2004; Xia et al., 2012) integrates a large quantity of observation based and model reanalysis data to drive offline (not coupled to the atmosphere) land surface models (LSMs), and executes at 1/8th-degree grid spacing over central North America."

Years of Record

1980/01 to 2014/12
temporal metadataID:

Formats

Timestep

Climatology | Sub-daily | Monthly

Data Time Period Extended?

yes, data set is extended

Domain

North America

Spatial Resolution

0.125 (224x464)

Ocean or Land

Land Only

Vertical Levels

Surface Data Set

Input Data

observations & model

Earth system components and main variables

Atmosphere, Air Temperature, CAPE, Evaporation, Precipitation, Radiation, Specific Humidity, Surface Pressure, Wind

Key Figures

Click the thumbnails to view larger sizes

Thumbnails

Captions
Climate Data Guide Image: NLDAS NLDAS July 1980-2009 climatology: Total Precipitation and Potential Evaporartion. (Climate Data Guide; D. Shea)
Climate Data Guide Image: NLDAS NLDAS July 1980-2009 climatology: Total Convection Precipitation and Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE). (Climate Data Guide; D. Shea)
Climate Data Guide Image: NLDAS NLDAS July 1980-2009 climatology: Temperature and Specific Humidity. (Climate Data Guide; D. Shea)
Climate Data Guide Image: NLDAS NLDAS July 1980-2009 climatology: Zonal (U) and Meridional Wind Components. (Climate Data Guide; D. Shea)
Climate Data Guide Image: NLDAS NLDAS July 1980-2009 climatology: Downward Shortwave and Longwave Radiation. (Climate Data Guide; D. Shea)
Climate Data Guide Image: NLDAS NLDAS July 1980-2009 climatology: Surface Pressure. (Climate Data Guide; D. Shea)
Climate Data Guide Image: NLDAS NLDAS July 1980-2009 climatology: Wind direction and magnitude. (Climate Data Guide; D. Shea)

Cite this page

National Center for Atmospheric Research Staff (Eds). Last modified 10 Dec 2019. "The Climate Data Guide: NLDAS: North American Land Data Assimilation System." Retrieved from https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu/climate-data/nldas-north-american-land-data-assimilation-system.

Acknowledgement of any material taken from this page is appreciated. On behalf of experts who have contributed data, advice, and/or figures, please cite their work as well.

NLDAS: North American Land Data Assimilation System

The goal of the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) is to construct quality-controlled, and spatially and temporally consistent, land-surface model (LSM) datasets from the best available observations and model output to support modeling activities. Data sets are available on hourly, daily, monthly and climatological time scales. NLDAS products are used in modeling, research, and applications, such as drought and flood monitoring, watershed and water quality management, and case studies of extreme events. There are two phases referred to as NLDAS-1 and NLDAS-2. The latter spans January 1979-present. "NLDAS (Mitchell et al., 2004; Xia et al., 2012) integrates a large quantity of observation based and model reanalysis data to drive offline (not coupled to the atmosphere) land surface models (LSMs), and executes at 1/8th-degree grid spacing over central North America."

1980-01/2014-12

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