GEOS5FP 2.11.0

generates rasters of near-real-time GEOS-5 FP near-surface meteorology

GEOS5FP Python Package

The GEOS5FP Python package generates rasters of near-real-time GEOS-5 FP near-surface meteorology.

Gregory H. Halverson (they/them)
[e-mail]
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory 329G

Installation

This package is available on PyPi as a pip package called GEOS5FP.

pip install GEOS5FP

Usage

Import this package as GEOS5FP.

from GEOS5FP import GEOS5FPConnection
from datetime import datetime

Creating a Connection

# Create connection to GEOS-5 FP data
conn = GEOS5FPConnection()

Generating Raster Data

Generate georeferenced raster data for a specific time and optional target geometry:

from rasters import RasterGeometry

# Define target geometry (optional - if not provided, uses native GEOS-5 FP grid)
target_geometry = RasterGeometry.open("target_area.tif")

# Get air temperature raster for a specific time
time_utc = datetime(2024, 11, 15, 12, 0)
temperature_raster = conn.Ta_K(time_UTC=time_utc, geometry=target_geometry)

# Get soil moisture raster
soil_moisture_raster = conn.SM(time_UTC=time_utc, geometry=target_geometry)

# Get leaf area index raster
lai_raster = conn.LAI(time_UTC=time_utc, geometry=target_geometry)

# Save raster to file
temperature_raster.to_geotiff("temperature.tif")

Available raster methods include:

• Ta_K() - Air temperature (Kelvin)
• Ts_K() - Surface temperature (Kelvin)
• SM() / SFMC() - Soil moisture
• LAI() - Leaf area index
• RH() - Relative humidity
• Ca() / CO2SC() - Atmospheric CO2 concentration (ppmv)
• And many more (see Available Variables section below)

Note: For point queries and multi-variable queries, use the .query() method described in the next section.

Generating Table Data with .query()

The .query() method is the recommended way to retrieve GEOS-5 FP data as tabular data (pandas DataFrames). It provides a flexible interface that supports:

• Single point queries - Data at one location and time
• Time series queries - Multiple timesteps at one location
• Multi-variable queries - Multiple variables in a single request
• Vectorized spatio-temporal queries - Multiple locations and times efficiently
• Validation table generation - Add GEOS-5 FP data to existing datasets

Single Point Query

# Get data for single point at specific time
time_utc = datetime(2024, 11, 15, 12, 0)
lat, lon = 34.05, -118.25  # Los Angeles

result = conn.query(
    target_variables="Ta_K",
    time_UTC=time_utc,
    lat=lat,
    lon=lon
)
print(result)  # Returns DataFrame with temperature value

Time Series Query

from datetime import timedelta

# Define time range
end_time = datetime(2024, 11, 15, 0, 0)
start_time = end_time - timedelta(days=7)  # 7 days of data

# Get time series for a point location
lat, lon = 34.05, -118.25
df = conn.query(
    target_variables="Ta_K",
    time_range=(start_time, end_time),
    lat=lat,
    lon=lon
)
print(df)  # Returns DataFrame with time series

Multi-Variable Query

# Query multiple variables at once
variables = ["Ta_K", "SM", "LAI"]
df_multi = conn.query(
    target_variables=variables,
    time_range=(start_time, end_time),
    lat=lat,
    lon=lon
)
print(df_multi)  # Returns DataFrame with columns for each variable

Validation Table Generation

import geopandas as gpd
from shapely.geometry import Point

# Create a table with existing data
targets = gpd.GeoDataFrame({
    'time_UTC': [datetime(2024, 11, 15, 12), datetime(2024, 11, 15, 13)],
    'geometry': [Point(-118.25, 34.05), Point(-74.0, 40.7)],
    'site_name': ['Los Angeles', 'New York']
})

# Query variables and add as new columns to the table
result = conn.query(
    target_variables=["Ta_C", "RH", "SM"],
    targets_df=targets
)
print(result)  # Returns original table with new columns for each variable

Vectorized Spatio-Temporal Query

import pandas as pd
import geopandas as gpd

# Load spatio-temporal data from CSV
data = pd.read_csv("locations.csv")  # Should have columns: time_UTC, lat, lon
data['time_UTC'] = pd.to_datetime(data['time_UTC'])

# Create geometries
gdf = gpd.GeoDataFrame(
    data,
    geometry=gpd.points_from_xy(data['lon'], data['lat'])
)

# Query all points and times at once (vectorized operation)
results = conn.query(
    target_variables=["Ta_K", "SM", "LAI"],
    time_UTC=gdf['time_UTC'],
    geometry=gdf['geometry']
)
print(results)  # Returns DataFrame with results for all locations and times

Using Raw GEOS-5 FP Variables

You can query variables using either:

• Predefined variable names (e.g., "Ta_K", "SM", "RH") - recommended for convenience
• Raw GEOS-5 FP variable names (e.g., "T2M", "SFMC", "QV2M") - requires dataset parameter

# Using predefined variable name (dataset automatically determined)
df = conn.query(
    target_variables="Ta_K",
    time_range=(start_time, end_time),
    lat=lat,
    lon=lon
)

# Using raw GEOS-5 FP variable name (dataset required)
df = conn.query(
    target_variables="T2M",  # Raw GEOS-5 FP variable name
    dataset="tavg1_2d_slv_Nx",  # Must specify product
    time_range=(start_time, end_time),
    lat=lat,
    lon=lon
)

See Available Variables section below for the complete list.

Computed Variables

The package automatically computes derived meteorological variables from base GEOS-5 FP data. You can query these just like any other variable:

# Query computed variables
results = conn.query(
    target_variables=["wind_speed_mps", "Ta_C", "RH", "VPD_kPa"],
    time_UTC=time_utc,
    lat=lat,
    lon=lon
)

Available computed variables:

Variable	Description	Computed From	Units
RH	Relative humidity	Q, PS, Ta	fraction (0-1)
Ta_C	Air temperature in Celsius	Ta_K	°C
wind_speed_mps	Wind speed magnitude	U2M, V2M	m/s
SVP_Pa	Saturated vapor pressure	Ta	Pa
Ea_Pa	Actual vapor pressure	RH, SVP_Pa	Pa
VPD_kPa	Vapor pressure deficit	SVP_Pa, Ea_Pa	kPa
Td_K	Dew point temperature	Ta, RH	K
PAR_proportion	PAR albedo fraction	ALBVISDR, ALBEDO	fraction
NIR_proportion	NIR albedo fraction	ALBNIRDR, ALBEDO	fraction

The package automatically retrieves only the necessary base variables and returns just the computed results.

Available Variables

The package provides access to a comprehensive set of GEOS-5 FP variables, organized by category. All variables can be queried using the .query() method or their corresponding dedicated methods.

Soil and Vegetation

Variable	Description	Units	GEOS-5 FP Product
SM, SFMC	Top layer soil moisture	fraction	tavg1_2d_lnd_Nx
LAI	Leaf area index	m²/m²	tavg1_2d_lnd_Nx
LHLAND	Latent heat flux over land	W/m²	tavg1_2d_lnd_Nx
EFLUX	Total latent energy flux	W/m²	tavg1_2d_flx_Nx

Temperature

Variable	Description	Units	GEOS-5 FP Product
Ta, Ta_K	Air temperature at 2m	K	tavg1_2d_slv_Nx
Ta_C	Air temperature in Celsius (computed)	°C	-
Ts, Ts_K	Surface temperature	K	tavg1_2d_slv_Nx
Tmin, Tmin_K	Minimum temperature at 2m	K	inst3_2d_asm_Nx

Pressure and Humidity

Variable	Description	Units	GEOS-5 FP Product
PS	Surface pressure	Pa	tavg1_2d_slv_Nx
Q	Specific humidity at 2m	kg/kg	tavg1_2d_slv_Nx
RH	Relative humidity (computed)	fraction	-
SVP_Pa	Saturated vapor pressure (computed)	Pa	-
Ea_Pa	Actual vapor pressure (computed)	Pa	-
VPD_kPa	Vapor pressure deficit (computed)	kPa	-
Td_K	Dew point temperature (computed)	K	-

Wind

Variable	Description	Units	GEOS-5 FP Product
U2M	Eastward wind at 2m	m/s	inst3_2d_asm_Nx
V2M	Northward wind at 2m	m/s	inst3_2d_asm_Nx
wind_speed_mps	Wind speed magnitude (computed)	m/s	-

Atmospheric Composition

Variable	Description	Units	GEOS-5 FP Product
vapor_kgsqm, vapor_gccm	Total precipitable water vapor	kg/m²	inst3_2d_asm_Nx
ozone_dobson, ozone_cm	Total column ozone	Dobson units / cm-atm	inst3_2d_asm_Nx
Ca, CO2SC	Atmospheric CO2 concentration	ppmv	tavg3_2d_chm_Nx
AOT	Aerosol optical thickness	dimensionless	tavg3_2d_aer_Nx
COT	Cloud optical thickness	dimensionless	tavg1_2d_rad_Nx

Radiation

Variable	Description	Units	GEOS-5 FP Product
SWin	Net surface shortwave radiation	W/m²	tavg1_2d_rad_Nx
SWTDN	Surface incident shortwave flux	W/m²	tavg1_2d_rad_Nx
PARDR	Direct photosynthetically active radiation	W/m²	tavg1_2d_lnd_Nx
PARDF	Diffuse photosynthetically active radiation	W/m²	tavg1_2d_lnd_Nx

Albedo

Variable	Description	Units	GEOS-5 FP Product
ALBEDO	Total surface albedo	fraction	tavg1_2d_rad_Nx
ALBVISDR	Direct beam visible surface albedo	fraction	tavg1_2d_rad_Nx
ALBVISDF	Diffuse beam visible surface albedo	fraction	tavg1_2d_rad_Nx
ALBNIRDR	Direct beam NIR surface albedo	fraction	tavg1_2d_rad_Nx
ALBNIRDF	Diffuse beam NIR surface albedo	fraction	tavg1_2d_rad_Nx
PAR_proportion	PAR albedo fraction (computed)	fraction	-
NIR_proportion	NIR albedo fraction (computed)	fraction	-

Variable Aliases

Many variables have multiple names for convenience:

• SM ↔ SFMC (Soil moisture)
• Ta ↔ Ta_K (Air temperature)
• Ts ↔ Ts_K (Surface temperature)
• Tmin ↔ Tmin_K (Minimum temperature)
• Ca ↔ CO2SC (CO2 concentration)
• vapor_kgsqm ↔ vapor_gccm (Water vapor)
• ozone_dobson ↔ ozone_cm (Ozone)

Temporal Resolution

• Hourly (tavg1_*): 1-hour time-averaged data
• 3-Hourly (tavg3_*, inst3_*): 3-hour time-averaged or instantaneous data

Complete Variable Reference

For detailed information about all variables, including formulas for computed variables and usage examples, see:

• QUERYABLE_VARIABLES.md - Comprehensive variable guide
• GEOS5FP/variables.csv - Machine-readable variable mappings

Data Source & Citation

This package accesses GEOS-5 FP (Forward Processing) data produced by the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Data Access

GEOS-5 FP data is accessed through:

• OPeNDAP Server: https://opendap.nccs.nasa.gov/dods/GEOS-5/fp/
• HTTP Server: https://portal.nccs.nasa.gov/datashare/gmao/geos-fp/das

Data is provided by NASA's Center for Climate Simulation (NCCS).

Citation

When using GEOS-5 FP data in publications, please cite:

Data Product:

Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) (2015), GEOS-5 FP: GEOS Forward 
Processing for Instrument Support, Greenbelt, MD, USA, Goddard Earth Sciences 
Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC). 
Accessed: [Date]

Acknowledgment:

GEOS-5 FP data used in this study were provided by the Global Modeling and 
Assimilation Office (GMAO) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center through the 
NASA Center for Climate Simulation (NCCS).

For more information about GEOS-5 FP, visit: https://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov/GEOS/