NLDAS-2: Monthly Land Surface Model Variables at 0.125° Resolution

Fifty-two fields simulated from the Noah land-surface model for the North American Land Data Assimilation System. Data are provided monthly from January 1979 to the present on a 0.125-degree grid. NASA's Global Earth Science Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) distributes this data, which was converted from GRIB to netCDF format.

Use Cases

• Modeling long-term hydrological trends based on monthly rainfall and snowfall accumulation.
• Analyzing soil moisture and temperature dynamics based on monthly average variables.
• Studying evapotranspiration and snow melt patterns based on monthly accumulated totals.
• Validating other climate or land surface models based on the 52 simulated physical fields.

Strengths

• Contains 52 distinct physical fields simulated from a validated land-surface model.
• Provides continuous monthly data from January 1979 to present, offering a long-term record.
• Uses a consistent 0.125-degree spatial grid across North America.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The first month (January 1979) has a one-hour offset and missing instantaneous data, as noted in the description.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Simulated from the Noah land-surface model as part of the NLDAS-2 project.

Time Range

January 1979 to present

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:27:33.669669; freshness should be verified.

Geography

North America (coverage implied by NLDAS)