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Forcing files for the ECMWF Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) Single Column Model (SCM) over Indian Ocean/Tropical Pacific derived from a 10-day high resolution simulation

This data set consisting of initial conditions, boundary conditions and forcing profiles for the Single Column Model (SCM) version of the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model, the Integrated Forecasting System (IFS). The IFS SCM is freely available through the OpenIFS project, on application to ECMWF for a licence. The data were produced and tested for IFS CY40R1, but will be suitable for earlier model cycles, and also for future versions assuming no new boundary fields are required by a later model. The data are archived as single time-stamp maps in netCDF files. If the data are extracted at any lat-lon location and the desired timestamps concatenated (e.g. using netCDF operators), the resultant file is in the correct format for input into the IFS SCM.



The data covers the Tropical Indian Ocean/Warm Pool domain spanning 20S-20N, 42-181E. The data are available every 15 minutes from 6 April 2009 0100 UTC for a period of ten days. The total number of grid points over which an SCM can be run is 480 in the longitudinal direction, and 142 latitudinally. With over 68,000 independent grid points available for evaluation of SCM simulations, robust statistics of bias can be estimated over a wide range of boundary and climatic conditions.

The initial conditions and forcing profiles were derived by coarse-graining high resolution (4 km) simulations produced as part of the NERC Cascade project, dataset ID xfhfc (also available on CEDA). The Cascade dataset is archived once an hour. The dataset was linearly interpolated in time to produce the 15-minute resolution required by the SCM. The resolution of the coarse-grained data corresponds to the IFS T639 reduced gaussian grid (approx 32 km). The boundary conditions are as used in the operational IFS at resolution T639. The coarse graining procedure by which the data were produced is detailed in Christensen, H. M., Dawson, A. and Holloway, C. E., 'Forcing Single Column Models using High-resolution Model Simulations', in review, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (JAMES).

For full details of the parent Cascade simulation, see Holloway et al (2012). In brief, the simulations were produced using the limited-area setup of the MetUM version 7.1 (Davies et al, 2005). The model is semi-Lagrangian and non-hydrostatic. Initial conditions were specified from the ECMWF operational analysis. A 12 km parametrised convection run was first produced over a domain 1 degree larger in each direction, with lateral boundary conditions relaxed to the ECMWF operational analysis. The 4 km run was forced using lateral boundary conditions computed from the 12 km parametrised run, via a nudged rim of 8 model grid points. The model has 70 terrain-following hybrid levels in the vertical, with vertical resolution ranging from tens of metres in the boundary layer, to 250 m in the free troposphere, and with model top at 40 km. The time step was 30 s.

The Cascade dataset did not include archived soil variables, though surface sensible and latent heat fluxes were archived. When using the dataset, it is therefore recommended that the IFS land surface scheme be deactivated and the SCM forced using the surface fluxes instead. The first day of Cascade data exhibited evidence of spin-up. It is therefore recommended that the first day be discarded, and the data used from April 7 - April 16.

The software used to produce this dataset are freely available to interested users;

1. "cg-cascade"; NCL software to produce OpenIFS forcing fields from a high-resolution MetUM simulation and necessary ECMWF boundary files.

https://github.com/aopp-pred/cg-cascade

Furthermore, software to facilitate the use of this dataset are also available, consisting of;

2. "scmtiles"; Python software to deploy many independent SCMs over a domain.

https://github.com/aopp-pred/scmtiles

3. "openifs-scmtiles"; Python software to deploy the OpenIFS SCM using scmtiles.

https://github.com/aopp-pred/openifs-scmtiles

Simple

Date (Publication)
2018-06-05T15:18:56
Date (Creation)
2018-06-05T15:18:56
Citation identifier
https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/bf4fb57ac7f9461db27dab77c8c97cf2
Citation identifier
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) / bf4fb57ac7f9461db27dab77c8c97cf2
Citation identifier
doi / http://dx.doi.org/10.5285/bf4fb57ac7f9461db27dab77c8c97cf2
Point of contact
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

Unavailable

Christensen, Hannah M.

Unavailable

Author

Unavailable

Dawson, Andrew

Unavailable

Author

Unavailable

Holloway, Christopher

Unavailable

Author

Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)

support@ceda.ac.uk

Custodian

Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)

support@ceda.ac.uk

Distributor

Unavailable

Christensen, Hannah M.

Unavailable

Principal investigator

Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)

support@ceda.ac.uk

pointofContact

Unavailable

Christensen, Hannah M.

Unavailable

pointofContact

Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)

support@ceda.ac.uk

Publisher
Maintenance and update frequency
Not planned
Update scope
Dataset
Keywords
  • NERC

  • CASCADE

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

  • atmospheric conditions

Access constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints
Public data: access to these data is available to both registered and non-registered users.
Use constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints
Under the following licence http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/, appropriate use of these data may fall under any use. This message is intended as guidance, always read the full licence. When using these data you must cite them correctly using the citation given on the CEDA Data Catalogue record.
Spatial representation type
Grid
Language
English
Topic category
  • Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere
N
S
E
W
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Begin date
2009-04-06T00:00:00
End date
2009-04-16T22:59:59
Unique resource identifier
WGS 84
Distribution format
Name Version

NetCDF

Distributor contact
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)

support@ceda.ac.uk

Distributor
OnLine resource
Protocol Linkage Name
https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/bf4fb57ac7f9461db27dab77c8c97cf2

CEDA Data Catalogue Page

OnLine resource
Protocol Linkage Name
http://data.ceda.ac.uk/badc/deposited2018/scm_in/data

DOWNLOAD

OnLine resource
Protocol Linkage Name
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/19422466

Christensen, H. M., Dawson, A. and Holloway, C. E., 'Forcing Single Column Models using High-resolution Model Simulations', to appear in Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (JAMES).

OnLine resource
Protocol Linkage Name
https://github.com/aopp-pred/cg-cascade

'cg-cascade'; NCL software to produce OpenIFS forcing fields from a high-resolution MetUM simulation and necessary ECMWF boundary files

OnLine resource
Protocol Linkage Name
https://github.com/aopp-pred/scmtiles

'scmtiles'; Python software to deploy many independent SCMs over a domain

OnLine resource
Protocol Linkage Name
https://github.com/aopp-pred/openifs-scmtiles

'openifs-scmtiles'; Python software to deploy the OpenIFS SCM using scmtiles

Hierarchy level
Dataset

Conformance result

Title

Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

Date (Publication)
2010-12-08
Statement

The high-resolution parent simulation was produced under the NERC Cascade project using the limited-area setup of the MetUM version 7.1 (Davies et al, 2005). This parent simulation was used to derive initial conditions and forcing profiles for the Single Column Model version of the Integrated Forecasting System. The data were produced for, and tested on, IFS CY40R1, but will be suitable for earlier model cycles, and also for future versions assuming no new boundary fields are required by a later model. Delivered to the CEDA Archive by the author.

Metadata

File identifier
bf4fb57ac7f9461db27dab77c8c97cf2 XML
Metadata language
English
Character set
UTF8
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Date stamp
2025-12-14T03:17:10
Metadata standard name
UK GEMINI
Metadata standard version

2.3

Metadata author
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)

support@ceda.ac.uk

Point of contact
 
 

Overviews

Spatial extent

thumbnail

Keywords

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

atmospheric conditions


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