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An animated image of CFSR global atmospheric precipitable water for 01-15 March 1993, in twelve-hourly intervals. (One-hourly CFSR data was down-sampled to every 12 hours to keep image size down.) This image was produced with the Grid Analysis and Display System (GrADS) and ImageMagick.
The Climate Forecast System (CFS) is a model representing the global interaction between the Earth's oceans, land, and atmosphere. Produced by several dozen scientists under guidance from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), this model offers hourly data with a horizontal resolution down to one-half a degree (approximately 56km) around the Earth for many variables. CFS uses the latest scientific approaches for taking-in, or assimilating, observations from many data sources: surface observations, upper air balloon observations, aircraft observations, and satellite observations. The Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) is an effort to generate a uniform, continuous, and best-estimate record of the state of the ocean-atmosphere for use in climate monitoring and diagnostics. The method keeps the model’s software constant and runs the model retrospectively, from 1979 through the present. In addition to the reanalyses efforts, the CFS model was also used to generate a Reforecast of past weather forecasts. These reforecasts help us better understand the model's ability to produce accurate weather forecasts. Over 500TB of CFSRR data, along with multiple derived products are available through NOMADS. NCEP's CFS homepage has many links to documentation of the model and operational model runs.
A global plot of CFSR near-surface winds on March 12, 1993 at 00UTC. This image was produced by downloading a subset of CFSR data through the NOMADS THREDDS Data Server (TDS) then visualizing with NASA’s Panoply visualization tool.