Free datasets from NCAR/dss

A number of datasets which can be used to generate the input files of WRF-Var can now be download directly from the NCAR/DSS web site:

• Only a limited number of datasets are available online
• The data is free to all users to download

Available GRIB datasets: (for input to WPS)

• NCEP Final Analysis (FNL from GFS) (ds083.2): 1 degree resolution, every 6 hours
  • http://dss.ucar.edu/datasets/ds083.2
    
• NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis (ds090.0): 2.5 degree resolution, every 6 hours
  • http://dss.ucar.edu/datasets/ds090.0
    
• NCEP GRIB GDAS (ds083.0): 2.5 degree resolution, every 12 hours. - you may be able to use it if your entire domain stays in one hemisphere.
  • http://dss.ucar.edu/datasets/ds083.0
    
• NCEP Eta/NAM (ds609.2): 40 km resolution, every 6 hours.
  • http://dss.ucar.edu/datasets/ds609.2
  
  

Available observational datasets:

• Surface and upper-air observational data (in ADP format) is also available to users
  
• Surface and Ship data (ds464.0)
  
• Upper Air data (ds353.4)
• Once you have the ADP data on your machine, you can use the script adp_to_little-r.csh (inside that latest FETCH TAR file - after Jan 21, 2004) to convert it to LITTLE_R input format.