FLDAS Specifications
| FLDAS-Global* | LIS7.4 Noah 3.6 monthly final and preliminary runs |
| Projection | Lat-Lon |
| Spatial Extent | Global (180°W-180°E, 60°S-90°N) |
| Spatial Resolution | 0.1° x 0.1° |
| Time Period | 1/1/1982 - present |
| Temporal Resolution | 15 minute time step, output saved daily |
| Latency | ~20th (final run) and ~5th (preliminary run) of the next month |
| Forcing** | Datasets derived from satellite measurements and atmospheric analyses (Final runs: CHIRPS precipitation forcing 50°S-50°N and MERRA-2 reanalysis; Preliminary runs: CHIRPS preliminary precipitation forcing and GDAS) |
| Forcing Heights | 2 m for air temperature and specific humidity, 10 m for wind |
| Elevation Definition | SRTM |
| Vegetation Definition | IGBP-MODIS |
| Soils Definition | STATSGO-FAO texture |
| Albedo | NCEP monthly climatology |
| Max Snow Albedo | NCEP |
| Greenness Fraction | NCEP monthly climatology |
| Landmask | MODIS |
| Land Surface Model | Noah 3.6 |
| Soil Layers | 4 layers: 0-0.1, 0.1-0.4, 0.4-1.0, 1.0-2.0 m |
| Output Format | NetCDF |
| FLDAS-Central Asia* | LIS7.4 Noah-MP 4.0.1 and Noah 3.6 daily runs |
| Projection | Lat-Lon |
| Spatial extent | Central Asia Domain (30-100°E, 21-56°N) |
| Spatial Resolution | 0.01° x 0.01° |
| Time Period | 10/1/2000 - present |
| Temporal Resolution | 15 minute time step, output saved daily |
| Latency | ~1 day |
| Forcing** | Datasets derived from satellite measurements and atmospheric analyses (GDAS) |
| Forcing Heights | 2 m for air temperature and specific humidity, 10 m for wind |
| Elevation Definition | SRTM |
| Vegetation Definition | IGBP-MODIS |
| Soils Definition | STATSGO-FAO texture |
| Albedo | NCEP monthly climatology |
| Max Snow Albedo | NCEP |
| Greenness Fraction | NCEP monthly climatology |
| Landmask | MODIS |
| Land Surface Models | NoahMP 4.0.1 and Noah 3.6 |
| Soil Layers | 4 layers: 0-0.1, 0.1-0.4, 0.4-1.0, 1.0-2.0 m |
| Output Format | NetCDF |
| FLDAS-Forecast | LIS7.1 Noah-MP 3.6 monthly runs | LIS7.1 CLSM 2.5 monthly runs |
| Projection | Lat-Lon | Lat-Lon |
| Spatial Extent | Continental Africa and the Middle East (20°W-60°E, 40°S-40°N) | Continental Africa and the Middle East (20°W-60°E, 40°S-40°N) |
| Spatial Resolution | 0.25° x 0.25° | 0.25° x 0.25° |
| Time Period |
1/1/1981 – present; Climatology: 1991-2020 |
1/1/1981 – present; Climatology: 1991-2020 |
| Temporal Resolution | 15 minute time step, output saved monthly | 15 minute time step, output saved monthly |
| Forecast Lead Extent | 6 months | 6 months |
| Forcings** |
Historic-forecast/Hindcast: CHIRPS-final precipitation and MERRA-2
Near-Real-time Forecast: CHIRPS-preliminary precipitation and MERRA-2
Dynamical Forecast: NMME Precipitation from models: CCSM4, GEOSv2, CFSv2, GEM5-NEMO, CanCM4i, and GFDL-SPEAR with GEOSv2 non-precipitation met-forcings.
Climatological Forecast or ensemble streamflow prediction: CHIRPS-final precipitation and MERRA-2
|
Historic-forecast/Hindcast: CHIRPS-final precipitation and MERRA-2 Near-Real-time Forecast: CHIRPS-preliminary precipitation and MERRA-2 Dynamical Forecast: NMME Precipitation from models: CCSM4, GEOSv2, CFSv2, GEM5-NEMO, CanCM4i, and GFDL-SPEAR with GEOSv2 non-precipitation met-forcings. Climatological Forecast or ensemble streamflow prediction: CHIRPS-final precipitation and MERRA-2 |
| Forcing Heights | 2 m for air temperature and specific humidity, 10 m for wind | 2 m for air temperature and specific humidity, 10 m for wind |
| Elevation Definition | SRTM | SRTM |
| Vegetation Definition | IGBP-MODIS | University of Maryland-AVHRR |
| Soils Definitions | ISRIC texture (Hengl et al., 2017) | Catchment-tile based Soil parameters derived from FAO’s estimated spatial soil water-holding capacities, derived by linking global pedon databases to the Soil Map of the World |
| Albedo | NCEP monthly climatology | Catchment-tile based Monthly Climatology derived from MODIS |
| Max Snow Albedo | NCEP | model estimated |
| Greenness Fraction | NCEP monthly climatology | Catchment-tile based, derived from GSWP-2 |
| Landmask | MODIS | AVHRR |
| Land Surface Model | Noah-MP 3.6 | Catchment Land Surface Model Fortuna 2.5 |
| Soil Layers |
4 layers: 0-0.1, 0.1-0.4, 0.4-1.0, 1.0-2.0 m |
3 layers: 0-0.02, 0-1.0, 0-2.0 m |
| Routing Model | HYMAP2 | HYMAP2 |
| Output Format | NetCDF | NetCDF |
*Additional datasets (e.g., forcing and static inputs), updated and new land surface models, and data assimilation algorithms are also being used to improve these systems.
**coarser scale meteorological forcing data are spatially disaggregated in the LIS core software using bilinear interpolation. Daily precipitation inputs are temporally disaggregated with the LDT software, matching the precipitation distribution specified in the forcing.
