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Table of Contents

Info

In progress. All details to be updated


General requirements

Encoding format

  • WMO GRIB2 data format.

Missing values

  • Bitmaps shall be used to indicate missing values.

Grid and resolution

  • The fields have to be provided on...
  • Grids are defined in GRIB2 using an accuracy of 1/1000000 (one millionth) of a degree.

GRIB2 encoding

All data must be encoded following the required rules described below to achieve fully compliant LC-GCR format from all centres.

Encoding software

ECMWF makes available a GRIB decoding library (ecCodes) for the benefit of the WMO community. ecCodes can be freely downloaded from here and the documentation can be found here.

For more general information about GRIB2 format please refer to WMO Manual on Codes .

Encoding details

Parameters

General encoding (TBA)

Specific details which should be encoded in GRIB2 sections 1 and 4:

...

Section 4
OctetsKey name

Value

Description

8-9productDefinitionTemplateNumber

0

Analysis and Forecast products (instantaneous)

(Analysis or forecast at a horizontal level or in a horizontal layer at a point in time (grib2/tables/17/4.0.table))

WMO Centre codes

The codes below are based on WMO Manual 306 - WMO Codes. Each organization must be uniquely identified by its WMO code. If necessary to distinguish between two organizations using the same WMO code the Sub-Centre one which differs must be provided.

...

*1 in ECMWF's ecCodes package

Examples of  the required GRIB2 files

parameter

Sample file


GRIB metadata dump*1

Time-mean 2 metre temperature

ecmf.202312.an.grib2ecmf.202312.an.dump

Time-mean mean sea level pressure

Time-mean total precipitationecmf.202311.fc.grib2ecmf.202311.fc.dump

...