GLDAS_NOAH10_3H_EP: Global Land Surface Variables at 3-Hourly Intervals

NASA's GLDAS-2.1 Noah Land Surface Model L4 3-hourly Early Product provides 36 land surface fields from January 2000 to the present. The dataset is simulated with the Noah Model 3.6 in the Land Information System and is forced with a combination of NOAA/GDAS atmospheric analysis, GPCP precipitation, and AGRMET radiation data. It is archived in NetCDF format and distributed by NASA's GES DISC.

Use Cases

• Modeling soil moisture and temperature dynamics based on the 36 land surface fields.
• Analyzing global precipitation and radiation forcing impacts on land surface processes.
• Studying hydrological cycles and energy budgets using the 3-hourly temporal resolution.
• Assimilating land surface states into weather and climate forecasts based on the model output.
• Investigating long-term trends in terrestrial water storage from 2000 to present.

Strengths

• Contains 36 distinct land surface fields, providing multiple variables for analysis.
• Covers a continuous time range from January 2000 to the present.
• Produced by NASA using the Noah Model 3.6 within a formal Land Information System.
• Offers a 3-hourly temporal resolution for high-frequency process analysis.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• This is an 'Early Product' stream with about 1.5 month latency and is superseded by a main production stream.
• Row count and file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), GES DISC

Collection Method

Simulated with the Noah Model 3.6 in the Land Information System (LIS) Version 7, forced with NOAA/GDAS, GPCP, and AGRMET data.

Time Range

January 2000 to present

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 02:29:29.158838; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global land surface at 1.0 x 1.0 degree resolution