Predictor variables

The different existing datasets do not name the meteorological variables the same way. AtmoSwing can interact with many datasets and has several of their variables defined. These datasets often provide different products, for example, for different types of levels (isobaric, isentropic, surface, etc.). As some variables can be defined for different levels (e.g., temperature), the product/level may need to be specified. Thus, the selection of a variable in the parameters file can be defined as level/variable, such as pressure/z for the geopotential on pressure levels, or isentropic/t for the temperature on isentropic levels. As different level types and variables are present for different datasets, they can be named differently in AtmoSwing. For example pressure/z, pl/h, and isobaric/hgt are identical. The name of the level (or product) has to be the same as the corresponding subfolder name. For example, someone using NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis 1 and having a subfolder ‘pressure’ should then use pressure/z for the geopotential height.

The following sections define first the different levels, then some common variables to most datasets, and finally, list the available variables for the different datasets.

Content of this section

Differentiating subsets/levels

The level can usually be defined using different terms. The provided terms are interchangeable.

Pressure level:

  • pressure_level

  • pressure_levels

  • pressure

  • press

  • isobaric

  • pl

  • pgbh

  • pgbhnl

  • pgb

Isentropic level:

  • isentropic_level

  • isentropic

  • potential_temperature

  • pt

  • ipvh

  • ipv

Surface:

  • surface

  • surf

  • ground

  • sfc

  • sf

Flux:

  • surface_fluxes

  • fluxes

  • flux

  • flxf06

  • flx

Column:

  • total_column

  • column

  • tc

  • entire_atmosphere

  • ea

Potential vorticity:

  • potential_vorticity

  • pv

  • pv_surface

  • epv

Common variables

Some variables are defined with different names (aliases) across the datasets:

Geopotential:

  • z

  • h

  • zg

When loading geopotential data, AtmoSwing automatically converts it to geopotential height.

Geopotential height:

  • z

  • h

  • zg

  • hgt

Air temperature:

  • t

  • temp

  • tmp

  • ta

  • air

Relative humidity:

  • rh

  • rhum

  • hur

  • r

Specific humidity:

  • sh

  • shum

  • hus

  • q

  • qv

Vertical velocity:

  • w

  • vvel

  • wap

  • omega

Precipitable water:

  • pwat

  • p_wat

  • pr_wtr

  • prwtr

Total column water:

  • tcw

Total column water vapour:

  • tcwv

Pressure:

  • pressure

  • press

  • pres

Sea level pressure:

  • slp

  • mslp

  • psl

  • prmsl

  • msl

U wind component:

  • u

  • ua

  • ugrd

  • u_grd

  • uwnd

V wind component:

  • v

  • va

  • vgrd

  • v_grd

  • vwnd

PV:

  • pv

  • pvort

  • epv

Total precipitation:

  • tp

  • prectot

Variables from datasets

The following variables are defined in AtmoSwing for the different reanalyses. When no data ID is provided, one can use one of the variants define above.

NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis 1

For pressure levels:

  • Air Temperature

  • Geopotential height

  • Relative Humidity

  • Specific Humidity

  • Vertical Velocity

  • U-Wind

  • V-Wind

For the surface:

  • Air Temperature

  • Surface lifted index (lftx)

  • Best (4-layer) lifted index (lftx4)

  • Vertical velocity

  • Potential temperature (pottmp)

  • Precipitable water

  • Pressure

  • Relative humidity

  • Sea level pressure

  • U-wind

  • V-wind

For the surface fluxes:

  • Air Temperature 2m

  • Potential evaporation rate (pevpr)

  • Specific humidity at 2m (shum)

  • Soil moisture (0-10cm) (soilw0-10)

  • Soil moisture (10-200cm) (soilw10-200)

  • Skin Temperature (sktmp)

  • Temperature of 0-10cm layer (tmp0-10)

  • Temperature of 10-200cm layer (tmp10-200)

  • Temperature at 300cm (tmp300)

  • U-wind at 10 m

  • V-wind at 10 m

  • Water equiv. of snow dept (weasd)

  • Maximum temperature at 2m (tmax2m)

  • Minimum temperature at 2m (tmin2m)

  • Cloud forcing net longwave flux (cfnlf)

  • Cloud forcing net solar flux (cfnsf)

  • Convective precipitation rate (cprat)

  • Clear sky downward longwave flux (csdlf)

  • Clear sky downward solar flux (csdsf)

  • Clear sky upward solar flux at surface (csusf)

  • Downward longwave radiation flux (dlwrf)

  • Downward solar radiation flux (dswrf)

  • Ground heat flux (gflux)

  • Latent heat net flux (lhtfl)

  • Near IR beam downward solar flux (nbdsf)

  • Near IR diffuse downward solar flux (nddsf)

  • Net longwave radiation (nlwrs)

  • Net shortwave radiation (nswrs)

  • Precipitation rate

  • Sensible heat net flux (shtfl)

  • Momentum flux (zonal) (uflx)

  • Zonal gravity wave stress (ugwd)

  • Upward Longwave Radiation Flux (ulwrf)

  • Upward Solar Radiation Flux (uswrf)

  • Visible Beam Downward Solar Flux (vbdsf)

  • Visible Diffuse Downward Solar Flux (vddsf)

  • Momentum Flux, v-component (vflx)

  • Meridional Gravity Wave Stress (vgwd)

NCEP/DOE Reanalysis 2

For pressure levels:

  • Air Temperature

  • Geopotential height

  • Relative Humidity

  • Vertical Velocity

  • U-Wind

  • V-Wind

For the surface:

  • Precipitable water

  • Pressure

  • Sea level pressure

For the surface fluxes:

  • Air Temperature 2m

  • Specific humidity at 2m (shum)

  • Maximum temperature at 2m (tmax2m)

  • Minimum temperature at 2m (tmin2m)

  • Skin Temperature (sktmp)

  • Soil moisture (0-10cm) (soilw0-10)

  • Soil moisture (10-200cm) (soilw10-200)

  • Temperature of 0-10cm layer (tmp0-10)

  • Temperature of 10-200cm layer (tmp10-200)

  • U-wind at 10 m

  • V-wind at 10 m

  • Water equiv. of snow dept (weasd)

  • Convective precipitation rate (cprat)

  • Downward longwave radiation flux (dlwrf)

  • Downward solar radiation flux (dswrf)

  • Ground heat flux (gflux)

  • Latent heat net flux (lhtfl)

  • Potential evaporation rate (pevpr)

  • Precipitation rate

  • Sensible heat net flux (shtfl)

  • Total cloud cover (tcdc)

  • Momentum flux (zonal) (uflx)

  • Zonal gravity wave stress (ugwd)

  • Upward Longwave Radiation Flux (ulwrf)

  • Upward Solar Radiation Flux (uswrf)

  • Momentum Flux (meridional) (vflx)

  • Meridional Gravity Wave Stress (vgwd)

NCEP CFSR

For pressure levels (pgbh):

  • Geopotential height

  • Precipitable water

  • Mean sea level pressure

  • Relative humidity

  • Temperature

NCEP CFSR subset

For pressure levels:

  • Geopotential height

  • Geopotential height anomaly (gpa)

  • Relative humidity

  • Specific humidity

  • Temperature

  • Vertical Velocity

  • Eastward wind

  • Northward wind

  • Atmosphere horizontal velocity potential (vpot)

  • 5-wave geopotential height (5wavh)

  • 5-wave geopotential height anomaly (5wava)

  • Atmosphere absolute vorticity (absv)

  • Cloud water mixing ratio (clwmr)

  • Atmosphere horizontal streamfunction (strm)

For the total column:

  • Relative humidity

  • Cloud water (cwat)

  • Atmosphere water vapor content (pwat)

ECMWF ERA5

For pressure levels:

  • Divergence (d)

  • Potential vorticity

  • Specific humidity

  • Relative humidity

  • Temperature

  • U component of wind

  • V component of wind

  • Vorticity (relative) (vo)

  • Vertical velocity

  • Geopotential

For surface:

  • 2 meter dewpoint temperature (d2m)

  • Sea level pressure (msl)

  • Snow depth (sd)

  • Sea surface temperature (sst)

  • 2 meter temperature (t2m)

  • Total column water (tcw)

  • Total column water vapor (tcwv)

  • 10 meter U wind component (u10)

  • 10 meter V wind component (v10)

  • Total precipitation (tp)

  • Convective available potential energy (cape)

  • Instantaneous moisture flux (ie)

  • Surface net solar radiation (ssr)

  • Surface solar radiation downwards (ssrd)

  • Surface net thermal radiation (str)

  • Surface thermal radiation downwards (strd)

ECMWF ERA-interim

For pressure levels:

  • Divergence (d)

  • Potential vorticity

  • Specific humidity

  • Relative humidity

  • Temperature

  • U component of wind

  • V component of wind

  • Vorticity (relative) (vo)

  • Vertical velocity

  • Geopotential

For isentropic levels:

  • Divergence (d)

  • Montgomery potential (mont)

  • Pressure

  • Potential vorticity

  • Specific humidity

  • U component of wind

  • V component of wind

  • Vorticity (relative) (vo)

For surface:

  • 2 meter dewpoint temperature (d2m)

  • Sea level pressure (msl)

  • Snow depth (sd)

  • Sea surface temperature (sst)

  • 2 meter temperature (t2m)

  • Total column water (tcw)

  • Total column water vapor (tcwv)

  • 10 meter U wind component (u10)

  • 10 meter V wind component (v10)

  • Total precipitation

  • Convective available potential energy (cape)

  • Instantaneous moisture flux (ie)

  • Surface net solar radiation (ssr)

  • Surface solar radiation downwards (ssrd)

  • Surface net thermal radiation (str)

  • Surface thermal radiation downwards (strd)

For PV levels:

  • Pressure

  • Potential temperature (pt)

  • U component of wind

  • V component of wind

  • Geopotential

ECMWF ERA 20th Century

For pressure levels:

  • Geopotential

  • Temperature

  • Relative humidity

  • Vertical velocity

For surface:

  • Total column water

  • Total precipitation

  • Sea level pressure

ECMWF Coupled ERA 20th Century

For pressure levels:

  • Geopotential

  • Temperature

  • Relative humidity

  • Vertical velocity

For surface:

  • Total column water

  • Total precipitation

  • Sea level pressure

ECMWF IFS

  • Geopotential (z)

  • Geopotential height (gh)

  • Air temperature

  • Vertical velocity

  • Relative humidity

  • Specific humidity

  • U component of wind

  • V component of wind

  • Theta E (thetaE)

  • Theta ES (thetaES)

  • Total column water vapour (tcwv)

  • Precipitable water

NWS GFS

  • Geopotential height

  • Air temperature

  • Vertical velocity

  • Relative humidity

  • U component of wind

  • V component of wind

  • Precipitable water

NASA MERRA-2

For product ‘inst6_3d_ana_Np’:

  • Geopotential height

  • Air temperature

  • Sea-level pressure

NASA MERRA-2 subset

For product ‘inst6_3d_ana_Np’:

  • Geopotential height

  • Specific humidity

  • Air temperature

  • Sea-level pressure

  • Eastward wind component

  • Northward wind component

  • Surface pressure (ps)

For product ‘inst3_3d_asm_Np’:

  • Ertel’s potential vorticity

  • Vertical pressure velocity

  • Relative humidity after moist

  • Sea level pressure

  • Air temperature

For product ‘inst1_2d_int_Nx’:

  • Total precipitable ice water (tqi)

  • Total precipitable liquid water (tql)

  • Total precipitable water vapor (tqv)

For product ‘inst1_2d_asm_Nx’:

  • Total precipitable ice water (tqi)

  • Total precipitable liquid water (tql)

  • Total precipitable water vapor (tqv)

  • 10-meter air temperature (t10m)

For product ‘tavg1_2d_flx_Nx’:

  • Total surface precipitation flux

For product ‘tavg1_2d_lnd_Nx’:

  • Total precipitation land; bias corrected

JMA JRA-55 subset

For pressure levels (anl_p125):

  • Geopotential height

  • Relative humidity

  • Temperature

  • Vertical velocity

For the surface (anl_surf125):

  • Pressure reduced to MSL

For the total column (anl_column125):

  • Precipitable water

For isentropic levels:

  • Potential vorticity

  • Geopotential Height

For product ‘fcst_phy2m125’:

  • Total precipitation 3h (tprat3h)

  • Total precipitation 6h (tprat6h)

JMA JRA-55C subset

For pressure levels (anl_p125):

  • Geopotential height

  • Relative humidity

  • Temperature

  • Vertical velocity

For the surface (anl_surf125):

  • Pressure reduced to MSL

For the total column (anl_column125):

  • Precipitable water

For isentropic levels:

  • Potential vorticity

  • Geopotential Height

For product ‘fcst_phy2m125’:

  • Total precipitation 3h (tprat3h)

  • Total precipitation 6h (tprat6h)

NOAA 20CR v2c

For pressure levels:

  • Air Temperature

  • Geopotential

  • Vertical velocity

  • Relative Humidity

  • Specific Humidity

  • Specific Humidity

  • U-Wind

  • V-Wind

For the surface:

  • Precipitable water

  • Sea level pressure

For surface fluxes:

  • Precipitation rate

NOAA 20CR v2c ensemble

For the product ‘analysis’:

  • Sea level pressure

  • Precipitable water

  • Vertical velocity at 500 hPa (omega500)

  • Relative Humidity at 850 hPa (rh850)

  • Relative Humidity at the pressure level 0.995 times the surface pressure (rh9950)

  • Air Temperature at 850 hPa(t850)

  • Air Temperature at the pressure level 0.995 times the surface pressure (t9950)

  • Geopotential height at 200 hPa (z200)

  • Geopotential height at 500 hPa (z500)

  • Geopotential height at 1000 hPa (z1000)

For the product ‘first_guess’:

  • Precipitation rate

NOAA OISST v2

There are no product/level definition for this dataset.

  • Sea Surface Temperature (sst)

  • Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly (sst_anom)

METEO-FRANCE ARPEGE

  • Geopotential

  • Relative humidity

  • Total column water vapour

  • Air temperature

  • Vertical velocity

Generic NetCDF

The generic dataset is different from the other datasets. There is no predefined variables. The variable name needs to be used in the NetCDF file.