The NOAA NCEP Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) and Climate Forecast System Version 2 (CFSv2)

Overview

This document provides an overview of the precipitation products from the Climate Forecast system reanalysis (CFSR) and its operational extension CFSv2. The CFSR is a third generation reanalysis product, developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), and it is using a global, high resolution, coupled atmosphere-ocean-land surface-sea ice system. The spatial resolution of the global atmospheric data is ~38 km (T382) and many atmospheric variables are provided at hourly temporal resolution.

Provider's contact information

CFSR is developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP).

Contact name: DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce

Contact email: Contact: cfs@noaa.gov

Licensing and citation

CFSR data is freely available.

Please reference the following article when using the CFS Reanalysis (CFSR) data:

Saha, S., S. Moorthi, H. Pan, X. Wu, J. Wang, and Coauthors, 2010: The NCEP Climate Forecast System Reanalysis. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 91, 1015–1057, doi:10.1175/2010BAMS3001.1.

For hourly data downloaded from UCAR RDA: Saha, S., et al. 2010. NCEP Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) Selected Hourly Time-Series Products, January 1979 to December 2010. Research Data Archive at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Computational and Information Systems Laboratory. https://doi.org/10.5065/D6513W89. Accessed dd mmm yyyy.

For monthly data downloaded from UCAR RDA: Saha, S., et al. 2010. NCEP Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) Monthly Products, January 1979 to December 2010. Research Data Archive at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Computational and Information Systems Laboratory. https://doi.org/10.5065/D6DN438J. Accessed dd mmm yyyy.

Please reference the following article when using the CFS Reforecast model or data:

Saha, S., S. Moorthi, X. Wu, J. Wang, and Coauthors, 2014: The NCEP Climate Forecast System Version 2. Journal of Climate, 27, 2185–2208, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00823.1

For hourly data downloaded from UCAR RDA: Saha, S., et al. 2011, updated monthly. NCEP Climate Forecast System Version 2 (CFSv2) Selected Hourly Time-Series Products. Research Data Archive at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Computational and Information Systems Laboratory. https://doi.org/10.5065/D6N877VB. Accessed dd mmm yyyy.

For monthly data downloaded from UCAR RDA: Saha, S., et al. 2012. NCEP Climate Forecast System Version 2 (CFSv2) Monthly Products. Research Data Archive at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Computational and Information Systems Laboratory. https://doi.org/10.5065/D69021ZF. Accessed dd mmm yyyy.

Variable name and units:

The following table summarizes the name of the variables available at NCAR RDA as hourly time series.

Notation (name)	Units
PRATE (precipitation rate; averaged)	kg m-2 s-1
CPRAT (Convective precipitation rate; averaged)	kg m-2 s-1
A PCP (Total precipitation)	kg m-2

Spatial coverage and resolution:

CFSR data, is a global dataset. Precipittaion is provided on a horizontal regular latitude-longitude grid with a spatial resolution of ~38 km (T382).

Temporal coverage and resolution:

CFSR is covering 01 Jan1 979 – 31 Mar 2011 period. The product was extended beyond 2011 as an operational real-time product, using a new version: NCEP's Climate Forecast System Version 2 (CFSv2). CFSR precipitation products are available at an hourly time resolution and as monthly means.

Information about observations (number, homogeneity)

All available conventional and satellite observations were included in the CFSR. Satellite observations were used in radiance form and were bias corrected with “spin up” runs at full resolution, taking into account variable CO2 concentrations. This procedure enabled smooth transitions of the climate record due to evolutionary changes in the satellite observing system.

It is extremely difficult to assimilate 2 m temperature over land in systems like the CFSR. Therefore, surface temperature from stations is not assimilated in CFSR.

The CFSR uses the NCEP operational observation quality control procedures.

Methodology

The CFSR is a third generation reanalysis product, and it is using global, high resolution, coupled atmosphere-ocean-land surface-sea ice system. It includes (1) coupling of atmosphere and ocean during the generation of the 6 hour guess field, (2) an interactive sea-ice model, and (3) assimilation of satellite radiances. The CFSR global atmosphere resolution is ~38 km (T382) with 64 levels. The global ocean is 0.25° at the equator, extending to a global 0.5° beyond the tropics, with 40 levels. The global land surface model has 4 soil levels and the global sea ice model has 3 levels. The CFSR atmospheric model contains observed variations in carbon dioxide (CO2), together with changes in aerosols and other trace gases and solar variations.

The Precipitation Analysis used in the CFSR (Pingping.Xie@noaa.gov; Jesse.Meng@noaa.gov ): Two sets of global precipitation analyses are utilized in the CFSR land surface analysis. The pentad data set of CPC Merged Analysis of Precipitation (CMAP, Xie and Arkin 1997) defines 5-day mean precipitation at a 2.5o latitude / longitude grid over the globe by merging information derived from gauge observations as well as satellite observations in infrared and passive microwave channels. The other data set used is the CPC unified global daily gauge analysis, constructed on a 0.5o latitude / longitude over the global land through the interpolation of quality controlled gauge reports from ~30,000 stations collected from the Global Telecommunication System (GTS) and many other national and international collections (Xie et al., 2010). The optimal interpolation (OI) algorithm of Xie et al. (2007) is employed to partially account for the orographic enhancements in precipitation. In addition to the analyzed values of precipitation, number of reporting stations and the ending time of daily accumulation are also included in the data set. Both analyses are generated for the entire CFSR analysis period from 1979 and updated on a real-time basis.

Information about the technical and scientific quality

The CSFR products are superior to previous NCEP reanalyses with respect to: improved model, finer resolution, advanced assimilation schemes, atmosphere-land-ocean-sea ice coupling, assimilates satellite radiances rather than retrievals, and accounts for changing CO2 and other trace gasses, aerosols, and solar variations.

Known CFSRR data issues are explained in the August 2011 CFSRR Known Issues Technical Document.

Limitations and strengths for application in North Canada

GENERAL KEY STRENGTHS:

Approaches the horizontal resolution of regional reanalyses like the NARR and Arctic System Reanalysis

GENERAL KEY LIMITATIONS:

Ocean-atmosphere interactions are not used directly. Rather the information is used for background information. The actual reanalysis is uncoupled.

References to documents describing the methodology or/and the dataset

Saha, S., S. Moorthi, X. Wu, J. Wang, S. Nadiga, P. Tripp, D. Behringer, Y. Hou, H. Chuang, M. Iredell, M.Ek, J. Meng, R. Yang, M.P. Mendez, H. van den Dool, Q. Zhang, W. Wang, M. Chen, and E. Becker, 2014: The NCEP Climate Forecast System Version 2, Journal of Climate, 27(6), 2185-2208, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00823.1.

Link to download the data and format of data:

The CFSR data (1979 to 2011) are available in GRIB-2 format and can be accessed in multiple ways.

NCEI NOMADS THREDDS Data Server: URL: https://nomads.ncdc.noaa.gov/thredds/cfsr.html

NOAA NOMADS FTP access: URL: ftp://nomads.ncdc.noaa.gov/CFSR/

At UCAR RDA data is grouped as follows:

NCEP Climate Forecast System Version 2 (CFSv2) Monthly Products (ds094.2)

NCEP Climate Forecast System Version 2 (CFSv2) Selected Hourly Time-Series Products (ds094.1)

NCEP Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) Monthly Products, January 1979 to December 2010 (ds093.2)

NCEP Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) Selected Hourly Time-Series Products, January 1979 to December 2010 (ds093.1)

Publications including dataset evaluation or comparison with other data in Canada