GLDAS-2.0: Global Land Surface Variables at 1.0 Degree, 3-Hourly from 1948-2014

NASA's Global Land Data Assimilation System Version 2.0 (GLDAS-2.0) provides a series of land surface variables simulated from the Catchment Land Surface Model. The dataset covers a 67-year period from January 1948 to December 2014 at a 3-hourly temporal resolution and a 1.0-degree spatial resolution. It is forced with Princeton meteorological input data and is archived in netCDF format.

Use Cases

• Analyze long-term trends in soil moisture and temperature based on the simulated land surface variables.
• Validate hydrological models using the 3-hourly, globally consistent forcing and output data.
• Study the global terrestrial water and energy cycles based on the assimilated land surface states.
• Investigate land-atmosphere interactions using the temporally consistent series from 1948-2014.

Strengths

• Covers a 67-year temporal range from 1948 to 2014, providing a long-term climate record.
• Provides 3-hourly temporal resolution at a 1.0-degree global spatial scale.
• Uses a consistent meteorological forcing dataset (Princeton) for the entire time series.
• Data was post-processed in October 2020 with a MODIS land mask to correct inland water representation.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect the biases inherent to the Princeton meteorological forcing dataset and the Catchment model parameters.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Simulated from the Catchment Land Surface Model 3.6 within the Land Information System (LIS) Version 7, forced by the Princeton global meteorological forcing dataset.

Time Range

January 1948 to December 2014

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 02:30:36.290619; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global