NLDAS-2: North American Land Data Assimilation System Forcing Fields

Page Summary

• The NLDAS-2 dataset provides hourly estimates of climatological properties using a combination of observation sources.

• This dataset is the primary forcing file for Phase 2 of the North American Land Data Assimilation System with a 1/8th-degree grid spacing.

• The dataset includes bands for various parameters such as temperature, humidity, pressure, wind components, radiation, precipitation, and soil-related properties.

• Data from this dataset are available free to the user community, consistent with NASA's Earth Science Data and Information Policy.

Dataset Availability

1979-01-01T13:00:00Z–2026-03-13T12:00:00Z

Dataset Producer

NASA GES DISC at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Earth Engine Snippet

ee.ImageCollection("NASA/NLDAS/FORA0125_H002")

Cadence

1 Hour

Tags

climate evaporation forcing geophysical hourly humidity ldas nasa precipitation pressure radiation soil temperature water-vapor wind

nldas

Description

Land Data Assimilation System (LDAS) combines multiple sources of observations (such as precipitation gauge data, satellite data, and radar precipitation measurements) to produce estimates of climatological properties at or near the Earth''s surface.

This dataset is the primary (default) forcing file (File A) 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 hourly.

NLDAS is a collaboration project among several groups: NOAA/NCEP''s Environmental Modeling Center (EMC), NASA''s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Princeton University, the University of Washington, the NOAA/NWS Office of Hydrological Development (OHD), and the NOAA/NCEP Climate Prediction Center (CPC). NLDAS is a core project with support from NOAA''s Climate Prediction Program for the Americas (CPPA).

Documentation:

• Readme

• How-To

• GES DISC Hydrology Documentation

• GES DISC Data Rods Documentation

Bands

Bands

Pixel size: 13915 meters (all bands)

Name	Units	Min	Max	Pixel Size	Description
temperature	°C	-49.79*	51.2*	13915 meters	Air temperature at 2 meters above the surface
specific_humidity	Mass fraction	0*	0.02*	13915 meters	Specific humidity at 2 meters above the surface
pressure	Pa	61847.6*	105338*	13915 meters	Surface pressure
wind_u	m/s	-27.93*	27.54*	13915 meters	U wind component at 10 meters above the surface
wind_v	m/s	-27.45*	35.13*	13915 meters	V wind component at 10 meters above the surface
longwave_radiation	W/m^2	72.18*	545.11*	13915 meters	Surface downward longwave radiation
convective_fraction		0*	1*	13915 meters	Fraction of total precipitation that is convective: from NARR
potential_energy	J/kg	0*	76666.2*	13915 meters	Convective available potential energy (J/kg): from NARR
potential_evaporation	kg/m^2	0*	2.76*	13915 meters	Potential evaporation: from NARR
total_precipitation	kg/m^2	0*	124.19*	13915 meters	Hourly total precipitation
shortwave_radiation	W/m^2	0*	1368.54*	13915 meters	Surface downward shortwave radiation - bias corrected

* estimated min or max value

Image Properties

Image Properties

Name	Type	Description
end_hour	DOUBLE	End hour
start_hour	DOUBLE	Start hour

Terms of Use

Terms of Use

Distribution of data from the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) is funded by NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD). Consistent with NASA Earth Science Data and Information Policy, data from the GES DISC archive are available free to the user community. For more information visit the GES DISC Data Policy page.

Citations

Citations:

• The data set source should be properly cited when the data are used. A formal reference of the form: \, 2012, last updated 2013: \. NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, USA, NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC). Accessed \ at \ is suggested following Parsons et al. (2010), doi:10.1029/2010EO340001.

Explore with Earth Engine

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Code Editor (JavaScript)

var dataset = ee.ImageCollection('NASA/NLDAS/FORA0125_H002')
                  .filter(ee.Filter.date('2018-07-01', '2018-07-30'));
var temperature = dataset.select('temperature');
var temperatureVis = {
  min: -5.0,
  max: 40.0,
  palette: ['3d2bd8', '4e86da', '62c7d8', '91ed90', 'e4f178', 'ed6a4c'],
};
Map.setCenter(-110.21, 35.1, 4);
Map.addLayer(temperature, temperatureVis, 'Temperature');

Open in Code Editor

NLDAS-2: North American Land Data Assimilation System Forcing Fields

Land Data Assimilation System (LDAS) combines multiple sources of observations (such as precipitation gauge data, satellite data, and radar precipitation measurements) to produce estimates of climatological properties at or near the Earth''s surface. This dataset is the primary (default) forcing file (File A) for Phase 2 of the North American …

NASA/NLDAS/FORA0125_H002, climate,evaporation,forcing,geophysical,hourly,humidity,ldas,nasa,precipitation,pressure,radiation,soil,temperature,water-vapor,wind

1979-01-01T13:00:00Z/2026-03-13T12:00:00Z

24.85 -125.15 53.28 -66.85

Google Earth Engine

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