Copernicus GloFAS flood forecasts

Copernicus GloFAS flood forecasts

The Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS), part of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS), publishes ensemble river-discharge and hydrological forecasts via the EWDS catalogue and CDS-family API. The dataset page says: "This dataset provides an ensemble of forecast time series of gridded hydrological data." Catalogue metadata is viewable anonymously; a free CDS/EWDS account is required to retrieve the forecast-grid data itself, mirroring the existing copernicus-marine-service entry.

Coverage

Variables, per the dataset description: river discharge, soil wetness index (root zone), snow water equivalent, and runoff water equivalent (surface plus subsurface), plus ancillary upstream-area and elevation files. The data is produced "forcing the open-source LISFLOOD hydrological model with input from the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ensemble forecast combined with the ECMWF extended-range ensemble forecast up to 30 days." Horizontal coverage: "Global except for Antarctica (90N-60S, 180W-180E)"; horizontal resolution "0.05° x 0.05° for version 4.0, 0.1° x 0.1° for version 3.1 and older"; temporal resolution "Daily data"; update frequency "Updated daily". Current version per the dataset page: "GloFAS v4.0 released 2023-07-26."

Verdict

Global river-discharge, soil-wetness, snow-water-equivalent and runoff ensemble forecasts (daily updates, up to a 30-day horizon) from the Copernicus Emergency Management Service's Global Flood Awareness System. Licensed Custom: the CEMS terms and conditions say "the law provides that users shall have a free, full and open access to Copernicus Service Information without any express or implied warranty", and separately: "users are granted free access to the data of CEMS EFAS & GloFAS for the following purposes and within the limits allowed under applicable law: (a) reproduction; (b) distribution; (c) communication to the public; (d) adaptation, modification and combination with other data and information". Attribution is required: "Generated using Copernicus Emergency Management Service information [Year]". WARNING: "Some data as produced by CEMS EFAS & GloFAS is restricted according to article 12 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1159/2013. Access to this restricted data will be granted only to specific users and upon registration." Disclaimer, verbatim: "Data from CEMS EFAS & GloFAS is provided for information purposes only. This means that the data does not constitute in any way a flood warning for which only national/regional institutions are authorized within their region of responsibility." Rate limits: Not stated. Signal Lab links only.