This refers to all the input files that the OpenIFS model needs to run:

• initial data to start a forecast (normally obtained from ECMWF);
• ifsdata and climate files (downloaded from the OpenIFS ftp site);
• model namelist (only parts of the OpenIFS namelist can be uploaded, see below)

These ancillary files are stored in a zipped format on the CPDN repository.

Experiment information is read from the initial files GRIB metadata upon upload to the OpenIFS@Home repository and used to set the experiment id, date/time of forecast etc.