Find out how to access ECMWF real-time open data

Note
See important licence and attribution information regarding open data on our datasets page.

Where to find the real-time open data

You can use the ECMWF link to browse the list of files.

Currently, ECMWF open real-time data are available from these locations:

ECMWF, with ROOT set to https://data.ecmwf.int/forecasts
Microsoft's Azure, with ROOT set to "https://ai4edataeuwest.blob.core.windows.net/ecmwf"
Amazon's AWS, with ROOT set to "https://ecmwf-forecasts.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com"

See file-naming convention below for an explanation of ROOT.

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File format

The files are in GRIB edition 2 format, except for trajectories which are in BUFR edition 4 format. We recommend using ecCodes version 2.24.2 or newer to manipulate the GRIB and BUFR files.

File-naming convention

The files are provided with the following naming convention:

No Format
[ROOT]/[yyyymmdd]/[HH]z/[resol]/[stream]/[yyyymmdd][HH]0000-[step][U]-[stream]-[type].[format]

where:

[ROOT] is the top-level URL of one of the sites hosting the data. See the above for possible values.
[yyyymmdd] is the reference date of the forecasts (base date).
[HH] is the reference time of the forecasts. Values are 00, 06 , 12 and 18.
[resol] is the horizontal resolution of the data. This is currently set to 0p4-beta and will be changed to 0p4 when the beta-testing period is over.
[stream] is the forecasting system that produces the data. Values are:
- oper - high-resolution forecast, atmospheric fields
- enfo - ensemble forecast, atmospheric fields
- waef - ensemble forecast, ocean wave fields,
- wave - wave model,
- scda - short cut-off high-resolution forecast, atmospheric fields (also known as "high-frequency products")
- scwv - short cut-off high-resolution forecast, ocean wave fields (also known as "high-frequency products") and
- mmsf - multi-model seasonal forecasts fields from the ECMWF model only.
[step] is the forecast time step expressed in units U
[U] is the unit used for the time step. Values are h for hours and m for month. The latter is only valid for seasonal forecasts (mmsf).
[type] is once of fc (forecast), ef (ensemble forecast), ep (ensemble probabilities) or tf (trajectory forecast for tropical cyclone tracks).
[format] is grib2 for all fields, and bufr for the trajectories.

The valid combinations of the above are:

No Format

format=bufr, type=tf 
   HH=00/12 
  	  stream=enfo/oper, step=240h 
   HH=06/18 
      stream=enfo, step=144h 
      stream=scda, step=90h 
format=grib2 
   HH=00/12 
      stream=enfo/waef 
        type=ef, step=0h to 144h by 3h, 144h to 360h by 6h 
        type=ep, step=240h/360h 
      stream=oper, wave 
        type=fc, step=0h to 144h by 3h, 144h to 240h by 6h 
   HH=06/18 
      stream=enfo/waef 
        type=ef, step=0h to 144h by 3h 
      stream= scda /scwv 
        type=fc, step=0h to 90h by 3h 
   HH=00 
   	  stream=mmsf, type=fc, u=m, step=1m to 7m

Access real-time open data with Python package ecmwf-opendata

A Python package called ecmwf-opendata is available from PyPi that greatly facilitates the access to this dataset. In addition, a series of Jupyter Notebooks have been developed to demonstrate the use of this package.

Examples of how to access real-time open data with wget or curl

In the following examples, [ROOT] should be replaced by one of the locations specified above.

Although all of the examples provided here use wget, curl can similarly be used to download the products.

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Examples using wget for products based on the Atmospheric Model high-resolution (HRES) forecasts

In the following examples, [ROOT] should be replaced by one of the locations specified above.

Although all of the examples provided here use wget, curl can similarly be used to download the products.

HRES direct model output

Expand

title	Products at time=00 or time=12

For direct model output from the Atmospheric model high-resolution (HRES) forecast time 00 and 12 UTC, stream=oper and type=fc should be used.

The steps available are 0h to 144h by 3h and 150h to 240h by 6h. The file format is grib2.

The example shows how to download the file containing all of the parameters available at step=24h from the 00UTC HRES forecast run on 25 January 2022:

Code Block
wget [ROOT]/20220125/00z/0p4-beta/oper/20220125000000-24h-oper-fc.grib2

Expand

title	Products at time=06 or time=18

For direct model output from the Atmospheric model high-resolution (HRES) forecast time 06 and 18 UTC, stream=scda and type=fc should be used.

The steps available are 0h to 90h by 3h only. The file format is grib2.

The example shows how to download the file containing all of the parameters available at step=24h from the 06 UTC HRES forecast run on 25 January 2022:

Code Block
wget [ROOT]/20220125/06z/0p4-beta/scda/20220125060000-24h-scda-fc.grib2

HRES Tropical Cyclone track products

Note
Tropical cyclone tracks products are only available when there are tropical cyclones observed or forecast.

Expand

title	HRES TC-Tracks at time=00 or time=12

For the Tropical Cyclone track products from the Atmospheric model high-resolution (HRES) forecast time 00 and 12 UTC, stream=oper and type=tf should be used.

Products are provided only at step=240. The file format is bufr.

The example shows how to download the file containing all of the TC Track products from the 00 UTC HRES forecast run on 25 January 2022:

Code Block
wget [ROOT]/20220125/00z/0p4-beta/oper/20220125000000-240h-oper-tf.bufr

Expand

title	HRES TC-track products at time=06 or time=18

For the Tropical Cyclone track products from the Atmospheric model high-resolution (HRES) forecast time 06 and 18 UTC, stream=scda and type=tf should be used.

Products are provided only at step=90. The file format is bufr.

The example shows how to download the file containing all of theTC Track products from the 18 UTC HRES forecast run on 25 January 2022:

Code Block
wget [ROOT]/20220125/18z/0p4-beta/scda/20220125180000-90h-scda-tf.bufr

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Examples using wget for products based on the Wave Model high-resolution (HRES-WAM) forecasts

HRES-WAM direct model output

Expand

title	Products at time=00 or time=12

For direct model output from the Wave model high-resolution (HRES-WAM) forecast at time time 00 and 12 UTC, stream=wave and type=fc should be used.

The steps available are 0h to 144h by 3h and 150h to 240h by 6h. The file format is grib2.

The example shows how to download the file containing all of the parameters available at step=06h from the 12 UTC HRES-WAM forecast run on 25 January 2022:

Code Block
wget [ROOT]/20220125/12z/0p4-beta/wave/20220125120000-12h-wave-fc.grib2

Expand

title	Products at time=06 or time=18

For direct model output from the Wave model high-resolution (HRES-WAM) forecast at time time 06 and 18 UTC, stream=scwv and type=fc should be used.

The steps available are 0h to 90h by 3h only. The file format is grib2.

The example shows how to download the file containing all of the parameters available at step=18h from the 06 UTC HRES-WAM forecast run on 25 January 2022:

Code Block
wget [ROOT]/20220125/06z/0p4-beta/scwv/20220125120000-18h-scwv-fc.grib2

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Examples using wget for products based on the Atmospheric Model ensemble (ENS) forecasts

ENS direct model output products

Expand

title	For all ENS direct model runs

For direct model output from the Atmospheric model ensemble (ENS) forecast at all times 00, 06, 12 and 18 UTC, stream=enfo and type=ef should be used.

At time=00 and time=12, the steps available are 0h to 144h by 3h and 150h to 360h by 6h.
At time=06 and time=18, the steps available are 0h to 144h by 3h only

The file format is grib2.

The example shows how to download the file containing all of the parameters available at step=24h for all 50+1 ensemble members from the 00UTC ENS forecast run on 25 January 2022:

Code Block
wget [ROOT]/20220125/00z/0p4-beta/enfo/20220125000000-24h-enfo-ef.grib2

ENS Tropical Cyclone track products

Note
Tropical cyclone tracks products are only available when there are tropical cyclones observed or forecast.

Expand

title	ENS TC-Tracks at time=00 or time=12

For the Tropical Cyclone track products from the Atmospheric model ensemble (ENS) forecast time 00 and 12 UTC, stream=enfo and type=tf should be used.

Products are provided only at step=240. The file format is bufr.

The example shows how to download the file containing all of the TC Track products from the 00 UTC HRES forecast run on 25 January 2022:

Code Block
wget [ROOT]/20220125/00z/0p4-beta/enfo/20220125000000-240h-enfo-tf.bufr

Expand

title	ENS TC-track products at time=06 or time=18

For the Tropical Cyclone track products from the Atmospheric model ensemble (ENS) forecast time 06 and 18 UTC, stream=enfo and type=tf should be used.

Products are provided only at step=144. The file format is bufr.

The example shows how to download the file containing all of theTC Track products from the 06 UTC ENS forecast run on 25 January 2022:

Code Block
wget [ROOT]/20220125/06z/0p4-beta/enfo/20220125060000-144h-enfo-tf.bufr

ENS Probability products

For the probability products from the Atmospheric model ensemble (ENS) forecast at all times 00, 06, 12 and 18 UTC, stream=enfo and type=ep should be used.

Products are available at time=00 and time=12 only.

Warning
There are no ENS probability products for time=06 or time=18.

The steps available are 0h to 144h by 3h and 150h to 360h by 6h. The file format is grib2.

Tip

The name of the file to be downloaded depends on the step. Use:

step=240h in the file name for products at forecast steps 0h to 144h by 3h and 150h to 240h by 6h
step=360h in the file name for products at forecast steps 246h to 360h by 6h

Expand

title	ENS probability products at 00 and 12 UTC for steps 0h to 144h by 3h and steps 150h to 240h by 6h

For probability products from the time=00 and time=12 ENS forecasts for for steps 0h to 144h by 3h and steps 150h to 240h by 6h, use step=240. The example is for the 00 UTC ENS forecast run on 25 January 2022:

Code Block
wget [ROOT]/20220125/00z/0p4-beta/enfo/20220125000000-240h-enfo-ep.grib2

Expand

title	ENS probability products at 00 and 12 UTC for steps 246h to 360h by 6h

For probability products from the time=00 and time=12 ENS forecasts for steps 246h to 360h by 6h, use step=360. The example is for the 12 UTC ENS forecast run on 25 January 2022:

Code Block
wget [ROOT]/20220125/12z/0p4-beta/enfo/20220125120000-360h-enfo-ep.grib2

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Examples using wget for products based on the Wave Model ensemble (ENS-WAM) forecasts

Expand

title	ENS-WAM direct model output products

For direct model output from the Wave model ensemble (ENS) forecast at all times 00, 06, 12 and 18 UTC, stream=waef and type=ef should be used.

At time=00 and time=12, the steps available are 0h to 144h by 3h and 150h to 360h by 6h.
At time=06 and time=18, the steps available are 0h to 144h by 3h only

The file format is grib2.

The example shows how to download the file containing all of the parameters available at step=24h for all 50+1 ensemble members from the 00UTC ENS-WAM forecast:

Code Block
wget [ROOT]/20220125/00z/0p4-beta/waef/20220125000000-24h-waef-ef.grib2

ENS-WAM Probability products

For the probability products from the wave model ensemble (ENS) forecast at all times 00, 06, 12 and 18 UTC, stream=waef and type=ep should be used.

Products are available at time=00 and time=12 only.

Warning
There are no ENS-WAM probability products for time=06 or time=18.

The steps available are 0h to 144h by 3h and 150h to 360h by 6. The file format is grib2.

Tip

The name of the file to be downloaded depends on the step. Use:

step=240h in the file name for products at forecast steps 0h to 144h by 3h and 150h to 240h by 6h
step=360h in the file name for products at forecast steps 246h to 360h by 6

Expand

title	ENS-WAM probability products at 00 and 12 UTC for steps 0h to 144h by 3h and steps 150h to 240h by 6h

For probability products from the time=00 and time=12 ENS-WAM forecasts for for steps 0h to 144h by 3h and steps 150h to 240h by 6h, use step=240. The example is for the 00 UTC ENS-WAM forecast run on 25 January 2022:

Code Block
wget [ROOT]/20220125/00z/0p4-beta/waef/20220125000000-240h-waef-ep.grib2

Expand

title	ENS probability products at 00 and 12 UTC for steps 246h to 360h by 6h

For probability products from the time=00 and time=12 ENS forecasts for steps 246h to 360h by 6h, use step=360. The example is for the 12 UTC ENS-WAMforecast run on 25 January 2022:

Code Block
wget [ROOT]/20220125/12z/0p4-beta/waef/20220125120000-360h-waef-ep.grib2

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DownloadASingleFieldWithWget
DownloadASingleFieldWithWget
Download a single field with wget

All of the examples above download a single file containing all of the parameters for that dataset at the specific forecast step or steps.

It is also possible to download of a single field using the HTTP Byte-Range request feature.

Expand

title	Example: download temperature at 2m at step=24h from the 00 UTC HRES forecast

To download only the 2m temperature at step=24h from the 00 UTC HRES forecast on 25 January 2022, first download the associated index file by substituting the '.grib2' extension with '.index' in the URL:

Code Block
wget [ROOT]/20220125/00z/0p4-beta/oper/20220125000000-24h-oper-fc.index

Inspect the index file and look for the entry for 2m temperature ('param' : '2t')

No Format

...
{"domain": "g", "date": "20220125", "time": "0000", "expver": "0001", "class": "od", "type": "fc", "stream": "oper", "step": "24", "levtype": "sfc", "param": "2t", "_offset": 17459800, "_length": 609046}
...

Use the values of _offset and _length keys for this record to construct the start_bytes and end_bytes:

No Format
start_bytes = _offset = 17459800 end_bytes = _offset + _length - 1 = 17459800 + 609046 - 1 = 18068845

Note
The "_offset" and "_length" values of a specific field will change from forecast run to forecast run. It is necessary to redo this computation for each download.

Use the start_bytes and end_bytes values calculated to pass the range of bytes to be downloaded to wget, this time for the .grib2 file:

Code Block
wget [ROOT]/20220125/00z/0p4-beta/oper/20220125000000-24h-oper-fc.grib2 --header="Range: bytes=17459800-18068845"

Alternatively, curl can be used:

Code Block
curl --range 17459800-18068845 [ROOT]/20220125/00z/0p4-beta/oper/20220125000000-24h-oper-fc.grib2 --output 2t.grib2

Warning

Multipart byte ranges of the form:

Code Block
wget ... --header="Range: bytes=17459800-18068845, 18168021-1819654"

are not supported by all servers.

Anchor
IndexFiles
IndexFiles
Index files

Each GRIB file is associated with a corresponding index file, accessible by substituting the '.grib2' extension with '.index' in the URL. Index files are text files where each line is a JSON record (JSON details here). Each record represents a GRIB field in the corresponding GRIB file, described using the MARS query language, for example:

No Format

{"domain": "g", "date": "20220104", "time": "1200", "expver": "0001", "class": "od", "type": "fc", "stream": "oper", "step": "6", "levelist": "1000", "levtype": "pl", "param": "q", "_offset": 3857250, "_length": 609046}

In addition, the keys _offset and _length represent the byte offset and length of the corresponding field. This allows the download of a single field using the HTTP Byte-Range request. An example is provided in Download a single field with wget above.

Differences between MARS language and file naming convention

There are some minor differences between the normal MARS request language and the open data file naming.

These are summarised in the table for information.

MARS			File names
Stream	Type	Step	Stream	Type	Step
oper/wave	fc	nnn	oper/wave	fc	nnn
enfo/waef	cf	nnn	enfo/waef	ef	nnn
enfo/waef	pf	nnn	enfo/waef	ef	nnn
enfo/waef	em	nnn	enfo/waef	ep	240 if nnn <= 240 else 360
enfo/waef	es	nnn	enfo/waef	ep	240 if nnn <= 240 else 360
enfo/waef	ep	nnn	enfo/waef	ep	240 if nnn <= 240 else 360
msmm	fcmean/em	nnn	mmsf	fc	nnn

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title	Contents of this page

Table of Contents

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title	See also

ECMWF Service Status

ECMWF Real-time Catalogue

ECMWF Archive Catalogue

ECMWF Open Charts

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title	Get help

Support level for this dataset

This data is provided as a 'self-serve' - documentation is provided, but no support service.

However, if the data seems broken or corrupt, please report it via our support portal and we will respond during normal office hours.

Button Hyperlink

title	Report a problem
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Versions Compared

Old Version 24

New Version 25

Key

Where to find the real-time open data

File format

File-naming convention

Access real-time open data with Python package ecmwf-opendata

Examples of how to access real-time open data with wget or curl

Examples using wget for products based on the Atmospheric Model high-resolution (HRES) forecasts

HRES direct model output

HRES Tropical Cyclone track products

Examples using wget for products based on the Wave Model high-resolution (HRES-WAM) forecasts

HRES-WAM direct model output

Examples using wget for products based on the Atmospheric Model ensemble (ENS) forecasts

ENS direct model output products

ENS Tropical Cyclone track products

ENS Probability products

Examples using wget for products based on the Wave Model ensemble (ENS-WAM) forecasts

ENS-WAM Probability products

Anchor
DownloadASingleFieldWithWget
DownloadASingleFieldWithWget
Download a single field with wget

Anchor
IndexFiles
IndexFiles
Index files

Differences between MARS language and file naming convention

Support level for this dataset

Page tree

Page History

Versions Compared

Old Version 24

New Version 25

Key

Where to find the real-time open data

File format

File-naming convention

Access real-time open data with Python package ecmwf-opendata

Examples of how to access real-time open data with wget or curl

Examples using wget for products based on the Atmospheric Model high-resolution (HRES) forecasts

HRES direct model output

HRES Tropical Cyclone track products

Examples using wget for products based on the Wave Model high-resolution (HRES-WAM) forecasts

HRES-WAM direct model output

Examples using wget for products based on the Atmospheric Model ensemble (ENS) forecasts

ENS direct model output products

ENS Tropical Cyclone track products

ENS Probability products

Examples using wget for products based on the Wave Model ensemble (ENS-WAM) forecasts

ENS-WAM Probability products

AnchorDownloadASingleFieldWithWgetDownloadASingleFieldWithWgetDownload a single field with wget

AnchorIndexFilesIndexFilesIndex files

Differences between MARS language and file naming convention

Support level for this dataset

Anchor
DownloadASingleFieldWithWget
DownloadASingleFieldWithWget
Download a single field with wget

Anchor
IndexFiles
IndexFiles
Index files