2.2. GDAS Prepbufr Data
- Description
Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) prepbufr files contain a variety of upper-air and surface weather observations from around the globe, including radiosonde, profiler and US radar derived winds, land and marine surface reports, aircraft reports, and more.
NOAA/NCEI: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/model-data/model-datasets/global-data-assimilation-system-gdas
Note: GDAS prepbufr data is also available via other sources (e.g., NOMADS, NOAA HPSS, and NCAR/Research Data Archive); however, NOAA/NCEI does not require an account and provides a long archive period.
- Recommended use
GDAS prepbufr data are commonly used for verification of standard meteorological variables, such as temperatures, dew point temperature, wind speed, visibility, and precipitation, and precipitation type.
- File format
BUFR
- Location of data
- Access restrictions
None
- Spatial resolution, grid, or coverage
Point observations with locations spanning the globe
- Temporal resolution
Files are provided daily (but contain data from 4/day model runs)
- Starting and/or ending dates
13 Feb. 2012 - Present
- Data latency
~1 week
For a near-realtime archive (but shorter retention period, see: https://nomads.ncep.noaa.gov/pub/data/nccf/com/gfs/prod)
- Variables available
Temperature, sea surface temperature, wind, geopotential height, visibility, and moisture
- METplus Use Cases
Link to METplus Use Cases for this dataset.
- Keywords
Note
Current Dataset: VxDataGDASPREP
Note
Data Labels: DataTypePoint, DataLevelSurface, DataLevelUpperAir, DataProviderNOAA, DataApplicationShortRange, DataApplicationMediumRange