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TOC > MSC Open Data > WCPS > Coupled WCPS ocean-atmosphere on MSC Datamart

Water Cycle Prediction System (WCPS) coupled atmosphere-ocean-sea ice forecasts data in NetCDF format

The coupled atmosphere-ocean-sea ice forecasts of GEM-LAM coupled with NEMO-CICE from WCPS are available as hourly products. These products are in NetCDF format with a latitude and longitude grid, corresponding to about 1km resolution (0.008 x 0.008 degree), over the domain of the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Rivers and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Data location

MSC Datamart data can be automatically retrieved with the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) as soon as they become available. An overview and examples to access and use the Meteorological Service of Canada's open data is also available.

The data is available using the HTTPS protocol and resides in a directory that is plainly accessible to a web browser. Visiting that directory with an interactive browser will yield a raw listing of links, each link being a downloadable NetCDF file.

The data can be accessed at the following URLs:

where:

  • HH : Model run start, in UTC [00,06,12,18]
  • hhh : Forecast hour [001, ..., 084]

A 24h history is kept in this directory.

Technical specification of the grid

Image of the coupled WCPS ocean-atmosphere domain

In the full domain shown in white, the valid dataset that covers lakes and oceans, is in color. In the rest of the domain, a "no-data" mask is used to specify the absence of data.

Parameter Value
ni 6675
nj 2364
resolution at 45° N 1km

Filename nomenclature

NOTE: ALL HOURS ARE IN UTC.

The files have the following nomenclature:

{YYYYMMDD}T{HH}Z_MSC_WCPS_{VAR}_{LVLTYPE}-{LVL}_{grid}{resolution}_PT{hhh}H.nc

where:

  • YYYYMMDD: Year, month and day of the beginning of the forecast
  • T : Time delimiter according to ISO8601 norms
  • HH: UTC run time [00, 06, 12, 18]
  • Z : Time zone (UTC hour)
  • MSC : Constant string indicating that the data is from the Meteorologcal Service of Canada (MSC)
  • WCPS : Constant string indicating that the data is from Water Cycle Prediction System
  • VAR : Variables included in this file
  • LVLTYPE : Vertical level type [Sfc for the surface, DBS for depth below the surface, AGL for fixed height above ground]
  • LVL : Vertical level value [10m, 0.5m, 1.5m, 0-2m from surface to 2 meters, all for all available levels]
  • grid : Constant string indicating the latitude and longitude projection [LatLon]
  • resolution : Resolution in degree 0.008 (about 1km) in both latitude and longitude directions
  • PT{hhh}H: Forecast hours based on ISO8601 norms. P, T and H are constant character designating Period, Time and Hour. "hhh" is the forecast hour [001, 001, 002, ..., 084]
  • nc : constant string indicating the NetCDF format

Examples:

  • 20211208T12Z_MSC_WCPS_SeaIceSnowVol_Sfc_LatLon0.008_PT001H.nc
  • 20211208T12Z_MSC_WCPS_SeaWaterPotentialTemp_DBS-0.5m_LatLon0.008_PT001H.nc

List of variables

Note: The unit PSU (Practical Salinity Unit) is equivalent to g/kg or per thousand (‰). It is based on the properties of sea water conductivity.

The variables tairsurf, uwindsurf, vwindsurf and runoffsurf are from GEM-LAM and the rests are from NEMO-CICE.

Support

If you have any questions about this data, please contact us.

Announcements from the dd_info mailing list

Announcements related to this dataset are available in the dd_info.