Western USA Climate Inputs for Land Model at 4km Resolution

Eleven western U.S. states are covered by this dataset of high-resolution climate inputs for land surface modeling. It contains 3-hourly data at a 4 x 4 km spatial scale from 1979 through 2015, derived from the GRIDMET observational source. The data were processed by ORNL_CLOUD for use in the Community Land Model (CLM v4.5) to estimate carbon stocks and fluxes.

Use Cases

• Calibrating and validating the Community Land Model (CLM) for regional carbon flux simulations.
• Analyzing sub-daily patterns of temperature, precipitation, and radiation across diverse western U.S. terrains.
• Studying long-term (1979-2015) climate variability and its impact on vegetation productivity.
• Correlating near-surface wind speed and specific humidity with land-atmosphere exchange processes.
• Serving as high-resolution boundary conditions for downscaled climate impact studies on water resources.

Strengths

• Provides sub-daily (3-hourly) temporal resolution, enabling analysis of diurnal cycles.
• Offers high spatial detail at a 4 x 4 km grid across 11 states.
• Covers a long, continuous time period of 37 years (1979-2015).
• Includes multiple key variables (temperature, precipitation, humidity, radiation, wind) for integrated land modeling.

Limitations

• Sources conflict on the last updated date (2016-01-01 vs. 2026-03-12).
• Specific column names and the total row/size counts are not provided by any platform.
• Data is derived from a daily source (GRIDMET) and processed for model use, not raw observations.

Provenance

Source

ORNL_CLOUD, derived from GRIDMET (formerly METDATA) observational data.

Collection Method

Data processed for use in the Community Land Model (CLM v4.5) at 3-hourly and 4km resolution.

Time Range

1979-01-01 to 2015-12 31

Freshness

2026-03-12 23:33:19.594990

Geography

Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming.