Weather data resources

The DSSAT models use daily weather data as the … We list below several web sites that provide access to daily data. Note that variables, completeness of records and formats vary greatly.

Global

  • AgMERRA: The AgMERRA and AgCFSR climate forcing datasets were created as an element of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) to provide consistent, daily time series over the 1980-2010 period with global coverage of climate variables required for agricultural models. These datasets were designed to be useful for AgMIP’s coordinated, protocol-based studies of agricultural impacts ranging from biophysical process studies to global agricultural economic models (Rosenzweig et al., 2013). These datasets are provided to promote consistency and transparency in climate data and to facilitate more harmonized comparisons across regions and between models, particularly in instances where there exist strong market linkages between regions. The 1980-2010 time period is of particular importance for agricultural modeling efforts due to the necessity to calibrate models for improved intercomparison as well as for acting as a baseline upon which future climate scenarios can be statistically and dynamically constructed.
  • iAIMS: Data are obtained from the following five sources:
    • (1) The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
    • (2) COOP Stations
    • (3) Meteorological Aviation Report (METAR)
    • (4) Crop Weather Program Weather Station Network at Corpus Christi, Texas
    • (5) Beaumont/Eagle Lake research weather stations 
  • NASA POWER: The POWER Project contains over 200 satellite-derived meteorology and solar energy Analysis Ready Data (ARD), at three temporal levels: daily, interannual (by year 12 months + annual averages), climatology. The POWER Data Archive provides data globally at a 0.5 x 0.5 degree resolution and is updated nightly to maintain Near Real Time (NRT) availability (2-3 days for meteorological parameters; 5-7 days for solar).
  • MarkSIM: The MarkSim™ DSSAT weather file generator uses the well-known MarkSim™ application (Jones & Thornton 2000, Jones et al 2002) working off a 30 arc-second climate surface derived from WorldClim (Hijmans et al 2005). Point and click on the map and up to 99 WTG files are prepared ready for use with DSSAT ®. Download and unpack to a directory on your machine and they are ready for use with the DSSAT4 crop modelling system (Hoogenboom et al 2003).
  • NOAA: Climate Data Online (CDO) provides free access to NCDC’s archive of global historical weather and climate data in addition to station history information. These data include quality controlled daily, monthly, seasonal, and yearly measurements of temperature, precipitation, wind, and degree days as well as radar data and 30-year Climate Normals.

United States

  • PRISM: The PRISM Climate Group gathers climate observations from a wide range of monitoring networks, applies sophisticated quality control measures, and develops spatial climate datasets to reveal short- and long-term climate patterns. The resulting datasets incorporate a variety of modeling techniques and are available at multiple spatial/temporal resolutions, covering the period from 1895 to the present. Whenever possible, the datasets are offered to the public, either free of charge or for a fee (depending on dataset size/complexity and funding available for the activity).
  • Climate Engine: The Climate Engine Application was created to enable users to quickly process and visualize satellite earth observations and gridded weather data for environmental monitoring and to improve early warning of drought, wildfire, and crop-failure risk. It includes options for downloading modeled daily weather data variables for user-selected data ranges. Instead of processing entire archives,  focus on data discovery and answers. The CE was started via partnerships between the Desert Research Institute, University of Idaho, and Google with support from a Google Faculty Research award  White House Climate Initiative.