Joint observation archive for Earth system reanalysis

With the goal of fostering collaboration across organizations and developing the ability for direct comparison of Earth System reanalysis results, a team of scientists from NOAA and NASA are collaborating on a curated joint observation archive containing Earth system data from 1979 to present. Providing a singular dataset for observation input use will allow reanalyses to be compared on their unique development qualities by removing the variation from using different observations. The archive is hosted in an AWS S3 bucket with ocean, ice, land and atmosphere observations in formats including bufr, ioda, and netcdf. The dataset also includes specification of observational errors and a black/white list for historic observations. Our future goals include extending the observations from 1979 to near real-time extension (with a 72-hour delay), expansion of observation types, conversion of bufr into ioda, a user-friendly front-end for easy access, and improved diagnostic tools for comparing experimental results. The end result of the project will be a publicly accessible dataset for observations and tools for consistent comparisons between reanalysis products.