Subject: Discontinuation of MACC_GFAS FTP service, 1 March 2018


Dear CAMS GFAS user,

You currently have access to the CAMS Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS) near-real-time analyses through the CAMS FTP dissemination service.

In September 2017, it was found that due to historical reason, analysis date and time values were encoded incorrectly in MACC_GFAS file and directory names under /DATA/MACC_GFAS/.

To fix this problem and to improve metadata encoded in file headers, a new parallel dissemination stream called CAMS_GFAS was created. You have been granted access to it, the stream is available under /DATA/CAMS_GFAS/.

(question) OPTIONAL EXAMPLE (to describe explicitly what is in the files and how the data is described in file headers)

This file contains the analysis from 28 November between 00:00 - 23:59 analysis:

/DATA/CAMS_GFAS/20171128> ls *frpfire.grib
-rw-r--r--    1 anonymou ec         25920120 Nov 29 05:18 z_cams_c_ecmf_20171128000000_gfas_an_sfc_frpfire.grib


> grib_ls -p date,time,step z_cams_c_ecmf_20171128000000_gfas_an_sfc_frpfire.grib

z_cams_c_ecmf_20171128000000_gfas_an_sfc_frpfire.grib

date        time        step        

20171128    0           0-24       

...

END OF EXAMPLE

GFAS data will be available in the new stream at the same time as in the existing MACC_GFAS stream.

If you are planning the use the GFAS FTP service in the future please migrate your acquisition scripts to the CAMS_GFAS stream as MACC_GFAS will be discontinued on 1st March 2018.

The CAMS GFAS data remains of course open and free under the CAMS Licence agreement. If you have not yet accepted the licence, we encourage you to do it now, right at the bottom of the following page:

http://apps.ecmwf.int/datasets/data/cams-nrealtime/licence/

Finally, we would like to take the opportunity to remind you that the recommended method of accessing GFAS data is through the ECMWF data server. This provides access to all GFAS data, and data is available immediately after production. The CAMS FTP dissemination service for GFAS is provided only for the convenience of users who cannot use the ECMWF data server (either via the interactive web interface or through the ECMWF WebAPI).  The FTP service is limited to only the latest seven days of GFAS analyses, and new data becomes available with several hours delay compared to the ECMWF data server.

For more information about GFAS, please see CAMS Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS) data documentation
For instructions to download GFAS data using the ECMWF Web-API, please see How to download the CAMS Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS) data
For all enquiries, please contact the Copernicus User Support Service Desk.

Regards,

Copernicus User Support at ECMWF

4 Comments

  1. Anabelle Menochet

    Hi Miha Razinger, I suggest that we add the example into the GFAS documentation. I'm concerned that the longer the message is, the less users will read all the information provided. What do you think?

  2. Miha Razinger

    Sure, no problem Anabelle Menochet


  3. Anabelle Menochet

    Message sent out on to ECPDS GFAS users (smile)

  4. Richard Engelen

    Any particular reason why we stressed that WebAPI should be the recommended way of access to GFAS? Does it not make more sense to distinguish between time-critical users (should use ECPDS) and non-time-critical users (should use WebAPI)?

    Richard