National Water Model V2.1 retrospective for selected NWIS gage locations, (1979-2020)
Dates
Publication Date
2022-05-10
Start Date
1979-02-01
End Date
2020-12-31
Citation
Blodgett, D.L., 2022, National Water Model V2.1 retrospective for selected NWIS gage locations, (1979-2020): U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9K5BEJG.
Summary
This dataset contains modeled hourly streamflow in cubic meters per second at each of about eighteen thousand selected operational and water-quality stream gage locations. It was assembled from publicly available retrospective V2.1 National Water Model outputs (See NWM Retrospective source info). The streamflow variable was extracted from model output files and the data were reshaped to optimize read performance. The stream gage locations were derived from several ongoing USGS project gages for evaluation of streamflow, water quality, and real-time monitoring, however only National Water Model identifiers and NHDPlusV2.1 catchment outlet locations (as contained in the National Water Model output files) are used to identify model results. [...]
Summary
This dataset contains modeled hourly streamflow in cubic meters per second at each of about eighteen thousand selected operational and water-quality stream gage locations. It was assembled from publicly available retrospective V2.1 National Water Model outputs (See NWM Retrospective source info). The streamflow variable was extracted from model output files and the data were reshaped to optimize read performance. The stream gage locations were derived from several ongoing USGS project gages for evaluation of streamflow, water quality, and real-time monitoring, however only National Water Model identifiers and NHDPlusV2.1 catchment outlet locations (as contained in the National Water Model output files) are used to identify model results. Relationships between U.S. Geological Survey National Water Information Service gages and National Water Model prediction locations were not reviewed for release at the time of publication of this data. Please contact the author for up-to-date information. All processing resources used for data reformatting and extraction can be found in this repository: https://code.usgs.gov/water/nwm_subset. This supporting code also contains Docker images that are capable of processing real-time National Water Model outputs into similar formats as this dataset and provide data services via the THREDDS Data Server. The retrospective is available in one NetCDF file. These data conform to the NetCDF-CF Discrete Sampling Geometry conventions. The retrospective data are available from public cloud data outlets (such as: https://noaa-nwm-retrospective-2-1-pds.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html). More information on these data is available from the Office of Water Prediction National Water Model page here: https://water.noaa.gov/about/nwm. Additional release notes are available here: https://www.weather.gov/media/notification/pdf2/scn20-119nwm_v2_1aad.pdf. This pdf has been archived with this data release.
This dataset, and those preceding it, have been used for several investigations into the performance of the National Water Model's ability to predict (reproduce) historical streamflow and for evaluation of its ability to predict (forecast) future streamflow. Previous versions (V1.2, V2.0) of the same data were also used in an investigation evaluating the predictive power for water quality (nitrogen loads) using the weighted regressions on time, discharge, and seasons method (WRTDS, https://pubs.usgs.gov/tm/04/a10/). Additionally, preparation of the dataset was an engineering investigation into creation of NetCDF files and associated data services with desirable data-read performance characteristics.
