NOAA GW Test Cases: Observations for Global Weather Model Development

A collection of observations necessary to run the National Weather Service's Global Workflow (GW) test cases. The data includes non-restricted observations in BUFR and IODA formats, experimental atmospheric and marine observations, aerosol emission data, and GFS analysis restarts. The workflow drives major NOAA global models like the Global Forecast System (GFS) and Global Ensemble Forecast System (GEFS).

Use Cases

• Testing and validating the National Weather Service's Global Workflow (GW) based on the described observation collections.
• Developing and improving global forecast models like the GFS and GEFS based on the included observational data.
• Converting meteorological observation data between BUFR and IODA formats as described in the dataset components.
• Analyzing aerosol emissions for atmospheric chemistry modeling based on the GEFS_ExtData component.
• Utilizing experimental atmospheric and marine observations for research on new data assimilation techniques.

Strengths

• Data is directly tied to the operational Global Workflow (GW) that drives major NOAA forecast systems like GFS and GEFS.
• Includes multiple specialized data components such as BUFR observations, IODA-converted data, and experimental observations.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The description notes data may be incomplete, immature, or subject to change.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Model Development (OMD) and Earth Prediction Innovation Center (EPIC).

Collection Method

Observations collected for running National Weather Service Global Workflow test cases, including outputs from NWS Observation Processing (ObsProc).

Geography

Global