Summary

Description

This data set contains the monthly climatology data of the secondary forcing data for Phase 2 of the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS-2). The data are in 1/8th degree grid spacing. The temporal resolution is monthly, ranging from January to December. The NLDAS-2 monthly climatology data are the monthly data averaged over the thirty years (1980 - 2009) of the NLDAS-2 monthly data. The file format is WMO GRIB-1. Brief description about the NLDAS-2 hourly and monthly primary forcing data can be found from the GCMD DIFs for GES_DISC_NLDAS_FORB0125_H_V002 and GES_DISC_NLDAS_FORB0125_M_V002 at http://gcmd.gsfc.nasa.gov/getdif.htm?GES_DISC_NLDAS_FORB0125_H_V002 and http://gcmd.gsfc.nasa.gov/getdif.htm?GES_DISC_NLDAS_FORB0125_M_V002. Details about the generation of the NLDAS-2 forcing datasets can be found in Xia et al. (2012). The NLDAS-2 monthly climatology land surface forcing fields are grouped into two GRIB files, "File A" and "File B". "File B" is the secondary (optional) forcing file and contains ten fields. The data set applies a user-defined parameter table to indicate the contents and parameter number. The GRIBTAB file (http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/hydrology/grib_tabs/gribtab_NLDAS_FORB_monthly.002.txt) shows a list of parameters for this data set, along with their Product Definition Section (PDS) IDs and units. For more information, please see the README Document at ftp://hydro1.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/s4pa/NLDAS/README.NLDAS2.pdf.