The NCEP Climate Forecast System (CFS)

Notice: The CFS version 1 forecast data being hosted on this server will be deleted on March 1, 2011. No further updates to this dataset will be made.

We apologize for a further delay in the CFSv2 implementation which was proposed to be released on February 22, 2011, to allow for more evaluation. NCEP is now targeting the last week in March 2011 for the implementation. As stated before, there will be a continuance of the current CFS (version 1) till June 28, 2011 to allow users to transition their processing to the new CFS (version 2). For detailed information, please visit: http://cfs.ncep.noaa.gov/cfsv2.info

 NEW   CFSv2 Calibration Climatology Data: The calibration climatologies are being prepared. Unlike the CFSv1, we will not be able to provide these with the real-time operational forecasts due to the large size of the dataset. We plan to transfer them to NCDC who will host this as a reference dataset. In the meantime, we are soliciting specific requests for small portions of the climatologies (monthly means or timeseries of specific variables). If resources permit, we may be able to provide this subset to the community sooner. Please fill out the following request form: Request Form

 NEW   CFSv2 Parallel Feed is now available!

 NEW   THERE WILL BE AN UPGRADE TO THE CLIMATE FORECAST SYSTEM (CFS) ON FEB 22, 2011. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE NEW CFS version 2.0

 NEW   CFS version 2.0 Reforecast Data Documentation

CFS v.2 Model (code, scripts, libraries ~9GB) (readme) (gzipped ~1.5GB)

The NCEP CFS Reanalysis [1979-2010] Info

The NCEP CFS Reanalysis Paper (pdf)

The NCEP CFS Reanalysis Paper Supplement

CFSRR (Climate Forecast System Reanalysis and Reforecast Project) Board Meeting Presentations

Display of Real-Time Operational CFS Forecasts

 
The CFS was developed at the Environmental Modeling Center at NCEP. It is a fully coupled model representing the interaction between the Earth's oceans, land and atmosphere. It became operational at NCEP in August 2004.

A description of the CFS is given in the following manuscript. Please reference this article when using the data.

S. Saha, S. Nadiga, C. Thiaw, J. Wang, W. Wang, Q. Zhang, H. M. van den Dool, H.-L. Pan, S. Moorthi, D. Behringer, D. Stokes, M. Pena, S. Lord, G. White, W. Ebisuzaki, P. Peng, P. Xie , 2006 : The NCEP Climate Forecast System. Journal of Climate, Vol. 19, No. 15, pages 3483.3517.

Contact: cfs@noaa.gov.