NLDAS-2: Hourly Land Surface Model Data for North America at 0.125° Resolution

NLDAS Noah Land Surface Model L4 Hourly data contains fifty-three fields simulated from the Noah land-surface model for Phase 2 of the North American Land Data Assimilation System. The data are in 1/8th degree grid spacing and range from January 1979 to the present with an hourly temporal resolution. This dataset is provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) via the GES DISC.

Use Cases

• Modeling soil moisture and temperature dynamics based on the described four-layer soil structure.
• Analyzing surface energy balance and heat fluxes for climate research based on the simulated land surface fields.
• Studying snowpack evolution and freeze-thaw processes based on the model's cold-season parameterizations.
• Providing boundary conditions for regional atmospheric models (e.g., WRF) based on the dataset's use as a land component.
• Investigating vegetation and canopy impacts on the hydrological cycle based on the described root zone and forest layer inclusions.

Strengths

• Long temporal coverage from January 1979 to present, providing over 40 years of data.
• High spatial (0.125 degree) and temporal (hourly) resolution for detailed analysis.
• Model incorporates specific cold-season and warm-season parameterizations based on cited research (Livneh et al. 2010, Wei et al. 2012).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for specific ML tasks.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Simulated from the Noah land-surface model as part of the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS-2).

Time Range

January 1979 to present

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:27:29.386465; freshness should be verified.

Geography

North America at 0.125 x 0.125 degree grid spacing