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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
Identifier
https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/bf4fb57ac7f9461db27dab77c8c97cf2
Identifier
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) / bf4fb57ac7f9461db27dab77c8c97cf2
Identifier
doi / http://dx.doi.org/10.5285/bf4fb57ac7f9461db27dab77c8c97cf2
Author
  Unavailable - Christensen, Hannah M. ( author )
Author
  Unavailable - Dawson, Andrew ( author )
Author
  Unavailable - Holloway, Christopher ( author )
Custodian
  Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) - custodian
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory , Harwell , Oxon , OX11 0QX , United Kingdom
01235446432
Distributor
  Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) - distributor
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory , Harwell , Oxon , OX11 0QX , United Kingdom
01235446432
Principal investigator
  Unavailable - Christensen, Hannah M. ( principal_investigator )
pointofContact
  Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) - point_of_contact
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory , Harwell , Oxon , OX11 0QX , United Kingdom
01235446432
pointofContact
  Unavailable - Christensen, Hannah M. ( point_of_contact )
Publisher
  Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) - publisher
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory , Harwell , Oxon , OX11 0QX , United Kingdom
01235446432
Maintenance and update frequency
notPlanned Not planned
Update scope
dataset Dataset
Keywords
  • NERC
  • CASCADE
GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
  • atmospheric conditions
Access constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
Public data: access to these data is available to both registered and non-registered users.
Use constraints
otherRestrictions 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 Grid
Metadata language
EnglishEnglish
Topic category
  • Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere
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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
  • NetCDF ()

Distributor
  Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) - Data Center Contact
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory , Harwell , Oxon , OX11 0QX , United Kingdom
01235446432
OnLine resource
CEDA Data Catalogue Page

Detail and access information for the resource

OnLine resource
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OnLine resource
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).

No further details.

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

No further details.

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

No further details.

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

No further details.

Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset

Conformance result

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.
File identifier
bf4fb57ac7f9461db27dab77c8c97cf2 XML
Metadata language
EnglishEnglish
Character set
8-bit variable size UCS Transfer Format, based on ISO/IEC 10646 UTF8
Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset
Date stamp
2025-11-15T03:15:57
Metadata standard name
UK GEMINI
Metadata standard version
2.3
Point of contact
  Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory , Harwell , Oxon , OX11 0QX , United Kingdom
01235446432
 
 

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Spatial extent

N
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Keywords

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
atmospheric conditions

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