dataset · Global

NASA GLDAS Project

NASA Global Land Data Assimilation System Version 2 (GLDAS-2) has three components: GLDAS-2.0, GLDAS-2.1, and GLDAS-2.2. GLDAS-2.0 is forced entirely with the Princeton meteorological forcing input data and provides a temporally consistent series from 1948 through 2014. GLDAS-2.1 is forced with a combination of model and observation data from 2000 to present. GLDAS-2.2 product suites use data assimilation (DA), whereas the GLDAS-2.0 and GLDAS-2.1 products are "open-loop" (i.e., no data assimilat

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Source details

Licence: [Creative Commons BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Evidence quality: 40.9

Listed in aws-odr public catalogue API on 2026-10-16; relevance/value screened (haiku).

Metadata checked: 2026-10-14T13:20:00.000Z

What's in it

Data offered docs-verified: 34 land surface model fields (GLDAS-2.1 Catchment 1.0° 3-hourly Early Product, GLDAS_CLSM10_3H_EP v2.1)
Coverage docs-verified: Global · January 2000 to present
Resolution docs-verified: 1.0 degree, 3-hourly
Update frequency docs-verified: Varies by dataset
Formats docs-verified: NetCDF
Access docs-verified: Earthdata Login account required; AWS access via controlled-access S3 bucket; licence CC BY 4.0

Useful for

Use cases llm-inferred: Antecedent soil moisture and evapotranspiration context for flood risk assessments · Soil moisture and runoff-related inputs for drainage or SuDS water balance checks · Long-run land surface baseline for regional water resources studies
Audience llm-inferred: hydrologists · flood risk consultants · drainage engineers · water resources engineers

Limitations

Constraints docs-verified: Early Product stream has about 1.5 month latency, and it is replaced by the main production stream once GPCP V1.3 forcing is available · Coarse 1.0 degree grid is unsuitable for site-scale analysis (llm-inferred from resolution)

Evidence

Check upstream coverage, uncertainty and licence before use. Station observations are not forecasts or design levels.