Global Land Surface Parameters from Noah Model at 1-Degree Resolution

GLDAS-2.0 Noah Land Surface Model data provides a series of simulated land surface parameters, including soil moisture and energy fluxes, at a 1.0 x 1.0 degree spatial resolution every 3 hours. The dataset was produced by NASA's Global Land Data Assimilation System and covers a 66-year period from January 1948 to December 2014. It is archived and distributed by the NASA GES DISC.

Use Cases

• Analyze temporal trends in soil moisture and surface temperature variables across global land grids from 1948 to 2014.
• Validate modern hydrological models by comparing their outputs against the simulated runoff and evapotranspiration fields in this dataset.
• Study the impact of meteorological forcing on land surface states by correlating Princeton forcing data with model-simulated energy flux parameters.
• Assess historical drought conditions using the time series of soil moisture and snow water equivalent data at continental scales.

Strengths

• 66-year temporally consistent time series from 1948 to 2014
• Global spatial coverage at 1.0 x 1.0 degree resolution
• Post-processed in 2020 with corrected MODIS land mask for accurate land/water separation
• 3-hourly temporal resolution captures diurnal cycles

Limitations

• Data ends in December 2014, lacking recent years
• Spatial resolution of ~110 km may be too coarse for local or watershed-scale studies
• Model simulations are 'open-loop' without data assimilation, potentially increasing uncertainty

Provenance

Source

NASA Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) Version 2.0, distributed by GES DISC.

Collection Method

Simulated land surface parameters from the Noah Model 3.6, forced by the Princeton global meteorological forcing dataset.

Time Range

1948-01-01 to 2014-12-31

Freshness

Data coverage ended in 2014; the product was last reprocessed in November 2019.

Geography

Global land surface