GLDAS Noah Land Surface Model L4 3 hourly 0.25 x 0.25 degree Early Product V2.1 (GLDAS_NOAH025_3H_EP)

Since the GPCP Version 1.3 data have a 3-4 month latency, the GLDAS-2.1 data products are first created without it, and are designated as Early Products (EPs), with about 1.5 month latency. Once the GPCP Version 1.3 data become available, the GLDAS-2.1 data products are processed in the main production stream and are removed from the Early Products archive. This data product is an Early Product for GLDAS-2.1 Noah 0.25 degree 3-hourly dataset.

The 3-hourly data product was simulated with the Noah Model 3.6 in Land Information System (LIS) Version 7. The data product contains 36 land surface fields from January 2000 to present. The GLDAS-2.1 simulation started on January 1, 2000 using the conditions from the GLDAS-2.0 simulation.

This simulation was forced with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) atmospheric analysis fields (Derber et al., 1991), the disaggregated Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) V1.3 Daily Analysis precipitation fields (Adler et al., 2003; Huffman et al., 2001), and the Air Force Weather Agency's AGRicultural METeorological modeling system (AGRMET) radiation fields.

The simulation used with GDAS and GPCP only from 2000 to February 2001, followed by addition of AGRMET for March 1, 2001 onwards. The GLDAS-2.1 products supersede their corresponding GLDAS-1 products. The GLDAS-2.1 data are archived and distributed in NetCDF format.