WLDAS: Western US Land Surface Hydrology Model Output

A long-term record of simulated land surface states and fluxes for the western United States, designed for drought assessment and water resources planning. The dataset is produced by NASA's Land Information System using the Noah-MP 3.6 model, driven by NLDAS-2 meteorological inputs. Outputs include soil moisture, snow water equivalent, evapotranspiration, and groundwater recharge at a 0.01-degree spatial resolution.

Use Cases

• Monitoring drought conditions based on modeled soil moisture and evapotranspiration anomalies.
• Assessing snowpack and water availability using snow depth and snow water equivalent outputs.
• Estimating groundwater recharge for water resources planning from derived model quantities.
• Analyzing land surface energy and water budget processes using simulated states and fluxes.

Strengths

• Cross-platform presence on Data.gov and NASA EarthData indicates established importance and accessibility.
• Model is customized for stakeholder needs in the western US, as described by the NASA Western Water Applications Office.
• Uses a specific, documented land surface model (Noah-MP version 3.6) and forcing data (NLDAS-2).

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are not provided on any platform.
• The listed last update date (2026-04-09) is in the future, creating uncertainty about data currency.
• License is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without further details.

Provenance

Source

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), funded by the NASA Western Water Applications Office.

Collection Method

Model simulation using NASA's Land Information System (LIS) to configure the Noah-MP Land Surface Model, forced by NLDAS-2 meteorological data.

Time Range

Long-term record (specific start and end dates not provided).

Freshness

2026-04-09 20:38:47.692715 (Note: This date is in the future, which is contradictory)

Geography

Western United States.