NCA-LDAS: Daily Terrestrial Water and Energy Data for the Continental U.S., 1979-2016

42 variables including land-surface fluxes, stores, states, and routing variables are provided in this high-resolution, gridded daily time series. The National Climate Assessment - Land Data Assimilation System (NCA-LDAS) is a terrestrial water reanalysis produced by NASA using the Land Information System framework. It covers the continental United States for the satellite era from January 1979 to December 2016.

Use Cases

• Analyzing long-term trends in soil moisture and snow cover based on assimilated satellite data records.
• Modeling surface water runoff and streamflow for water resource management based on routing variables.
• Studying the impacts of irrigation on regional hydrology based on assimilated MODIS irrigation intensity estimates.
• Developing climate change indicators related to terrestrial water stores and fluxes.

Strengths

• Multivariate assimilation of multiple satellite-based earth observations, including soil moisture, snow, and irrigation data.
• High spatial resolution at 1/8th degree and daily temporal resolution over a 38-year period (1979-2016).
• Derived from the Noah Version 3.3 land-surface model within NASA's Land Information System framework.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Spatial coverage is limited to the continental United States, which may not be suitable for global studies.

Provenance

Source

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)

Collection Method

Land surface hydrologic modeling with multivariate assimilation of satellite Environmental Data Records (EDRs), driven by NLDAS-2 atmospheric forcing.

Time Range

January 1979 to December 2016

Freshness

Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Geography

Continental United States