Background
Access via web-api
The data is downloaded from the ECMWF public datasets service using web-api which is a "programmatic approach" using python scripts . You will need to download the appropriate python modules to run these scripts. For example, the python scripts will contain from ecmwfapi import commands, like in this simple example:
#!/usr/bin/env python
#
from ecmwfapi import ECMWFDataServer
# To run this example, you need an API key
# available from https://api.ecmwf.int/v1/key/
server = ECMWFDataServer(verbose=1)
server.retrieve({
'dataset' : "rom_saf_3198",
'stream' : "moda",
'levtype' : "pl",
'levelist': "1000",
'date' : "20150301",
'type' : "an",
'param' : "131.128",
'grid' : "0.5/0.5",
'format' : "netcdf",
'target' : "rom_saf_3198.nc"
})
General information related to downloading the data via web-api, is described here:
https://confluence.ecmwf.int/display/WEBAPI/Web-API+Downloads
Specifically, follow the steps here to install the latest code version:
https://pypi.org/project/ecmwf-api-client/
Briefly, install this with the pip command:
pip install ecmwf-api-client
You will now have the modules needed in the python scripts. (I actually needed this command for the ECMWF system pip install --user ecmwf-api-client because of local permssions).
Login and retrieve your "key":
Login at:
https://apps.ecmwf.int/auth/login/
Retrieve your key at:
Create and paste the "key" information in here:
$HOME/.ecmwfapirc
You will also need to accept the terms before you can access the data with web-api otherwise you will get an error when you run the script.