CRU : Projects : SO&P : Data : Model Data : HadCM3 : HadCM3 Data

SO&P: HadCM3 Soil moisture

nat : 1500-1999 natural forcings only

Important notes regarding the HadCM3 data:

Do not redistribute data to others outside the SO&P project.

Hadley Centre will require co-authorship and need to know from the start what analyses you are using the HadCM3 data for. Please contact Simon Tett (see SO&P participants table) and keep him informed.

To ensure collaboration between SO&P partners, please refer to the list of ongoing/planned model-data comparisons. Please contact others who have listed an interest in the same area, to initiate collaboration. To add your planned areas of model-data work to the list, email Tim Osborn.

A small climate drift, unrelated to the external forcings, is present in the HadCM3 simulations. It's significance depends on the region and variable being considered. Simon Tett describes how this should be dealt with, by reference to the HadCM3 control simulation, in this report (not yet available). The HadCM3 control simulation data is not yet available.

Please inform Tim Osborn of any errors that you find in the data.

For important notes regarding the nat simulation: click here.

For important notes regarding the soilm variable: click here.

Obtaining fields of model data

Fields of model data, covering the entire globe, are available in netCDF format only (please email Tim Osborn if you cannot use netCDF files). For monthly and seasonal-mean data, there is usually one file for each decade (though not always and the filenames or headers will make it clear when this is not the case). For annual data there are usually separate files for each year.

The netCDF header contains all the information about coordinates and units that you need.

You have two options for downloading the files:

Use wget with the command listed below (click here to obtain the wget software, to understand its options and for an explanation of its advantages):

wget --mirror --no-parent --no-directories --accept=nc --http-user=soaphad --http-passwd=xe2005 http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/projects/soap/pw/data/model/hadcm3/soaparchive/nat/nc/soilmoist/

Click here to see a listing of all files, and right-click each one that you want to download/save.

Note that the data files use the HadCM3 variable name instead of the variable name used on the SO&P website. Instead of soilm, the files are named soilmoist.

Note also that the units used in the data files may be different to those given in the time series plots/data, because I converted some variables to more common units. Refer to the netCDF file headers for the units used (and any notes below regarding errors in this information).

Select alternative simulation for this variable:
control : nat : all

Select alternative variable from this simulation:
slp__ : sst__ : airtm : rlhum : swrad : precp : snowd : soilm : soilt : win10 : z850_ : z500_ : u500_ : v500_ : iceco : iceth : lwrad : sealv

Important notes regarding the 'nat' simulation:

The surface roughness due to vegetation cover was incorrectly set to present-day, rather than pre-industrial, values during this simulation. This results in a step-change between this 'nat' simulation and the 'all' simulation in 1750 (because the vegetation roughness is changed to pre-industrial cover at the start of the 'all' simulation). Simon Tett will be calculating some correction fields for each variable, which can be applied to the 'nat' simulation data to remove the vegetation error effects.
The data files run from 1492-1999, but in SO&P we are using data from 1500-1999 only.

Important notes regarding the soilm variable:

The soil moisture variable stored from the HadCM3 simulations IS NOT TOTAL SOIL MOISTURE. Instead, it is the amount of soil moisture in the vegetation root zone. Because the vegetation changes between the three simulations, and also changes during the course of the all simulation, the depth of the root zone changes. Therefore, the soil moisture within the root zone can change dramatically between simulations and also during the all simulation even if the total soil moisture has not changed.
The soil moisture data from the HadCM3 simulations is probably of little use.

Last updated: August 2004, Tim Osborn