SPARC Reanalysis Intercomparison Project

Tools

Information on Reanalyses

  • reanalyses.org: reanalysis information and intercomparison website prepared and maintained by the reanalysis centers.

Tools for Reanalysis Intercomparison

  • List of tools at reanalyses.org: List of web-based tools for comparing atmospheric reanalysis datasets.
  • WRIT: Web-based Reanalyses Intercomparison Tools (WRIT), with maps, timeseries, trajectories, etc.
  • CREATE IP: Collaborative REAnalysis Technical Environment (CREATE) is a NASA project to collect all available global reanalysis data, providing analytic capabilities, visualization analysis capabilities, etc. (See also Potter et al. (BAMS, 2018).)
  • ana4MIPs: selected major reanalysis datasets are reformatted similarly to facilitate comparison with each other and with the CMIP models
  • MERRA-2 weather and chemical maps: weather maps and chemical maps using MERRA-2 data (e.g., 5-day movies)
  • MERRA atlas: intercomparison of some standard variables between MERRA and other commonly-used reanalyses
  • JRA-55 atlas: a complilation of climate maps produced with JRA-55 dataset
  • NCAR Climate & Global Dynamics Data Catalog: information about and links to reanalysis data
  • NCAR/UCAR Climate Data Guide: provides summaries of key information for each reanalysis (under "Climate Data") along with descriptions of various data analysis tools (under "Analysis Tools")

Tools for Data Retrieval

  • NCAR CISL Research Data Archive: includes most reanalyses except for MERRA. After submitting a data request at the site, you will receive an email (generally within 24 hours) describing how to retrieve the data.

Tools for Data Conversion and Analysis

  • NCAR Command Language (NCL): ncl_convert2nc can convert various file types (including GRIB, GRIB2, and HDF) into netCDF. The options "-nc4c -c l" will yield a netCDF4 file; the size of a netCDF4 file is much smaller than the size of a standard netCDF3 file, but a higher version of the netCDF libraries is required to handle netCDF4 (see the netCDF FAQ for further details).
  • netCDF Operators (NCO): tools for manipulating netCDF-accessible data files, including HDF4 and HDF5
  • Climate Data Operators: includes more than 600 operators for manipulating and analyzing data in the GRIB and netCDF formats
  • Panoply: Java-based interface for visualizing data in netCDF, HDF, and GRIB formats

More about Data Assimilation and Reanalysis System

  • NCAR's DART Data Assimilation Research Testbed: A community software for exploring a variety of data assimiliation methods and observations with different numerical models, designed to facilitate the combination of assimilation algorithms, models, and observations to allow increased understanding of all three.
  • MetEd's training course on Data Assimilation: Understanding Assimilation Systems: How Models Create Their Initial Conditions - version 2 (2-3 hour online training course)
  • ECMWF's Education material: This page includes materials for the Numerical Weather Prediction Training Course and the Computer User Training Course.
  • ECMWF's OpenIFS: The OpenIFS provides an easy-to-use version of the ECMWF Integrated Forecasting System.