Support for NetCDF Forcing Files in LIS Simulation – NLDAS-2 Compatibility Issue

[shaider2]

I’m currently working on a LIS simulation have encountered a data format compatibility issue related to forcing files.

In past runs, I have used the GRIB version of NLDAS-2 data to drive LIS. However, for a few specific years (namely 2008, 2018, and 2019), the only available datasets I have are in NetCDF format. Unfortunately, the version of LIS I’m using does not support NetCDF as a forcing input.

I understand that more recent LIS versions include support for NetCDF-formatted forcing. I'm exploring an upgrade path, but also reaching out to see if:

Anyone in the community has GRIB versions of the NLDAS-2 data for these missing years?

There are any recommended workflows for converting NetCDF to GRIB that are compatible with LIS forcing requirements?

[GES DISC - jschaperow]

The NLDAS-2 v002 GRIB-1 data are no longer archived at GES DISC. We updated to NLDAS-2 v2.0, which are the same data but converted to NetCDF format. Please refer to https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datasets/NLDAS_FORA0125_H_2.0/summary.

If you need GRIB-1 format for compatibility with the older version of LIS, you can try converting the NetCDF-4 files back to GRIB-1 using a process like this: https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/information/howto?keywords=grib&title=How%20to%20convert%20a%20netCDF%20file%20to%20a%20GRIB1%20file%20using%20CDO