NOAA GFS: Global Weather Forecast Model Data

NOAA's Global Forecast System (GFS) is a weather forecast model produced by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). It provides dozens of atmospheric and land-soil variables, covering the entire globe at a base horizontal resolution of 18 miles (28 kilometers) for forecasts out to 16 days. The dataset includes warm start initial conditions made available four times per day for running forecasts at the 00Z, 06Z, 12Z, and 18Z cycles.

Use Cases

• Training numerical weather prediction models based on global atmospheric and land-soil variables.
• Analyzing climate patterns based on temperature, wind, and precipitation forecasts.
• Developing agricultural risk models based on soil moisture and precipitation data.
• Conducting research on atmospheric composition using ozone concentration data.

Strengths

• Covers the entire globe with a base horizontal resolution of 18 miles (28 kilometers).
• Provides dozens of variables including temperatures, winds, precipitation, soil moisture, and ozone.
• Data is updated four times per day for four forecast cycles (00Z, 06Z, 12Z, 18Z).
• Operational model run at 64 vertical layers extending from the surface to the upper stratosphere.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and total dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), NOAA.

Collection Method

Produced by the GFS model using the GFDL Finite-Volume Cubed-Sphere Dynamical Core (FV3) and the Grid-Point Statistical Interpolation (GSI) data assimilation system.

Time Range

Forecasts are produced out to 16 days in the future.

Freshness

Data is produced four times daily; the model was upgraded to v16.3.0 effective November 29, 2022.

Geography

Global coverage.