The OpenIFS Data Hub is a facility to generate initial conditions for forecast model experiments. It is aimed at users of the IFS and the OpenIFS model. If you are interested in ECMWF datasets or need more general information about ECMWF data please follow this link.
OpenIFS Data Hub will not be able to generate data until the end of November 2022! What is happening? During the period from 08 September 2022 to October/November 2022 access to ECMWF data sets is severely restricted. Any requests to the OpenIFS Data Hub will likely fail during this time period. Why is it happening? This is because the ECMWF Data Handling System (DHS), providing the MARS and ECFS services, will be moved from the United Kingdom to the new ECMWF Data Centre in Bologna, Italy. During this time many data products will either not be available or only have minimal availability. This also includes all public ECMWF datasets which are required to generate OpenIFS initial experiment data. Moreover, this period of restricted access overlaps with the final phase of migrating the OpenIFS Data Hub from hardware ECMWF in Reading to hardware in the Data Centre in Bologna which leads to a further service disruption. After the completion of this process the OpenIFS Data Hub will reopen operating from the ECMWF Data Centre in Bologna with access to the newly migrated MARS archive. OpenIFS users will be notified here and via the openifs-announce mailing list once the OpenIFS Data Hub becomes available again. More information: You may consult the following web pages for more information about the DHS move: |
One of the most pressing needs OpenIFS users face is to create initial conditions to start a model experiment. Until now such initial experiment data had to be requested by contacting OpenIFS support via email.
The OpenIFS Data Hub allows OpenIFS and IFS users to produce their own initial experiment data through a web-based application that triggers an automatic data generation process on our servers. The initial data files are produced using the exact same method as if the OpenIFS team had created the data. At the end of the process the user is provided with a download web link.
The Data Hub removes therefore the need to email the OpenIFS team at ECMWF and provides one common system that is available to both ECMWF staff and external OpenIFS users everywhere. Any initial data types that are currently not yet served by the Data Hub can be requested, as before, from the OpenIFS team by emailing openifs-support@ecmwf.int.
After the initial public release of the OpenIFS Data Hub, following a pilot scheme phase, we will explore possibilities to expand this data facility with additional functionality, for instance by offering a wider range of data types or by providing access to OpenIFS training data. Feedback from users will be very important for this.
The OpenIFS Data Hub can be accessed here: https://apps.ecmwf.int/webapps/openifs/
Note: Login credentials are required to use the Data Hub. During the current pilot phase only a limited number of username-password combinations will be accepted which are disseminated directly to individual users. Please note that your generic ECMWF login credentials will not work at this time. |
After the initial user authentication you will reach the Data Hub's dashboard page which shows your data request history.
To submit a new request for initial data press the "New Request" button at the top of the page. This will open a new web page containing a data request form:
Once the data request form has been completed, the request can be submitted to the Hub by pressing the Submit button.
Once this button has been pressed, the request information is added to the queue and the data generation process can begin. The request history dashboard page is shown.
Some preliminary checking is done while entering the request data.
If the dashboard page is not shown after pressing the submit button check your input fields for any errors. |
Further consistency checks will be carried out once the request has been accepted. Note that any user choices resulting in an unworkable data requests will be identified early in the process and the user request will be aborted.
A maximum data volume of 500,000 MB is permitted for a single request. Any requests exceeding this data volume will be aborted. For reference, an initial data request at the current operational grid resolution (Tco1279L137) for a single start date with 10 days forecast length has an (uncompressed) data volume of approximately 20,000 MB.
After submitting a request the dashboard page is displayed again showing the user's request history.
On this Details Page for a selected request the following information is shown:
At present the OpenIFS Data Hub is only accessible to a limited number of users. This is a new facility and we expect that it will need to be further improved. The present focus has been on developing a system with robust functionality in order to generate high quality initial experiment data in a consistent, traceable and reliable fashion.
We welcome feedback and suggestions for improvements from the early users. Of particular interest will be feedback of the following nature:
We encourage users to leave feedback by commenting on this Confluence page (these comments will be managed and from time to time removed) or by emailing openifs-support@ecmwf.int.
We thank all our users for their time in giving constructive feedback!