The 3-D component of the STOFS, namely, STOFS-3D-Pacific
provides users with the 24-hour nowcasts (analyses of near present conditions)
and up to 48-hour forecast guidance of the water level conditions, as well as
2- and 3-dimensional fields of water temperature, salinity, and currents.
STOFS-3D-Pacific is run one time (on 12 UTC) per day. The system domain
encompasses the U.S. CONUS West Coast (Puget Sound, Salish Sea, Columbia River,
San Francisco Bay), Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, Hawaiian Islands, Aleutian
Islands, Guam and Northern Mariana Islands, and other U.S. Pacific island
territories. The water levels produced by the STOFS-3D-Pacific represent the
combined tidal and subtidal water surface elevations and are unanimously
referenced to Local Mean Sea Level (LMSL). STOFS-3D-Pacific is providing a new
variable called “water level disturbance”, which is defined as water level
height above LMSL for topobathy below LMSL (e.g. ocean), and as water level
height above ground for topobathy above LMSL (e.g. land). Maximum height in the
STOFS-3D-Pacific grid is 10 m above xGEOID20B.
STOFS-3D-Pacific employs the Semi-implicit Cross-scale Hydroscience Integrated System Model (SCHISM) as the
hydrodynamic model core. Its unstructured model grid consists of 2,961,412
nodes and 5,774,631 triangular or quadrilateral elements. The total number of
3D grid points is 83,839,597. Grid resolution is 1.5-2 km near the shoreline, ~300 m
for the floodplain, and ~60 m for watershed rivers. Along the U.S. coastline, the
land boundary of the domain aligns with the Mean High Water (MHW), except in
the Columbia River Estuary and San Francisco Bay, where the land boundary of
the domain aligns with the 10-m contour above xGEOID20B, encompassing the
coastal transitional zone most vulnerable to coastal and inland flooding. The
number of vertical layers ranges from 84 near the entrance of Columbia River to
just 1 layer in floodplain areas. The model run uses a computational time step
of 90 s. In total, STOFS-3D-Pacific currently simulates 1 day of simulation in
0.40 wall clock hours on 3960 computational cores.
The files provided here include GRIB2 format for regional
grids and SHEF format for station time series; both GRIB2 and SHEF are
coincidentally provided to National Weather Service forecasters through AWIPS.
The files are also provided here in native netCDF
format, which include the full native resolution model grids and station time
series; and the geopackage (gpkg)
files for the field time series of water level
disturbance over the entire domain.
This service is made possible through a public-private
partnership enabled by the NOAA Open Data Dissemination (NODD).
File
Format
The files are
in NETCDF, GRIB2, and SHEF format. Both NOAA and NASA provide
tools for accessing NETCDF files:
NOAA provides
tools for accessing GRIB2 files:
More details on
SHEF files are available here.
Access to the datasets is being provided on Amazon Web
Services (AWS) via Simple Storage Service (S3). Files can be downloaded via the
native AWS S3 API using tools such as the AWS CLI or AWS SDK libraries such as the Python boto3 package.
AWS S3 also provides direct HTTP access to the files, so
datasets can be downloaded using any HTTP client such as web browser. To make
discovering and accessing the data easier, a simple bucket explorer
web application is also provided which allows you to navigate through the
object key structure and download files using a web browser.
The Amazon Resource Name (ARN) for the S3 Bucket is: arn:aws:s3::: noaa-nos-stofs3d-pds/STOFS-3D-Pac.
Here is an example of using the AWS CLI to list a
particular day in the S3 bucket:
·
aws s3 ls
s3://noaa-nos-stofs3d-pds/STOFS-3D-Pac/stofs_3d_pac.YYYYMMDD
·
Where YYYY =
year, MM = month, DD = day
Additionally, an AWS Simple Notification Service (SNS)
Topic has also been created to provide automated notifications when new files
are added to the S3 Bucket. Users who operate their own infrastructure on AWS
can integrate directly with this SNS Topic to trigger automated workflows using
AWS Lambda or other services.
The Amazon Resource Name (ARN) for the SNS Topic is: arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:709902155096:NewICOGS3DObject.
NOAA's operational STOFS-3D-Pacific output is available
here: s3://noaa-nos-stofs3d-pds/STOFS-3D-Pac/
NOAA's collaborator, Virginia Institute of Marine Science
(VIMS), runs a shadow model for STOFS-3D-Pacific. Its output is available here:
s3://noaa-nos-stofs3d-pds/STOFS-3D-Pac-shadow-VIMS/
All of the text below
describes data organization only for NOAA's operational STOFS-3D-Pacific.
Files are organized by day, i.e., all model outputs on a
particular day are included in that day's directory, e.g.:
·
stofs_3d_pac.YYYYMMDD
·
Where YYYY =
year, MM = month, DD = day
Within each directory, the below files are present. Use
this key to interpret file names:
·
CC is the model run cycle, 12, for the nowcast and forecast
runs
·
HHH is the nowcast hour (i.e., 023 - 000) or the forecast
hour (i.e., 000 – 048).
·
cwl stands for combined (subtidal plus
tidal) water level (unit: m) referenced to LMSL.
·
maxele stands for
maximum water level elevation across entire forecast cycle
|
Content |
Resolution |
File Type |
|
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.conus.west.fHHH.grib2 |
Combined water level (m, LMSL) field on
Regional Western CONUS gridded files |
2.5 km |
GRIB2 |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.conus.west.cwl.grib2 |
Hourly combined water level (m, LMSL) field
on Regional Western CONUS gridded files for all forecast hours |
2.5 km |
GRIB2 |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.alaska.fHHH.grib2 |
Combined water level (m, LMSL) field on
Regional Alaska gridded files |
2.5 km |
GRIB2 |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.alaska.cwl.grib2 |
Hourly combined water level (m, LMSL)
field on Regional Alaska gridded files for all forecast hours |
2.5 km |
GRIB2 |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.northpacific.fHHH.grib2 |
Combined water level (m, LMSL) field on
Regional North Pacific gridded files |
2.5 km |
GRIB2 |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.northpacific.cwl.grib2 |
Hourly combined water level (m, LMSL)
field on Regional North Pacific gridded files for all forecast hours |
2.5 km |
GRIB2 |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.hawaii.fHHH.grib2 |
Combined water level (m, LMSL) field on
Regional Hawaii gridded files |
2.5 km |
GRIB2 |
|
Hourly combined water level (m, LMSL)
field on Regional Hawaii gridded files for all forecast hours |
2.5 km |
GRIB2 |
|
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.guam.fHHH.grib2 |
Combined water level (m, LMSL) field on
Regional Guam gridded files at forecast HHH |
1.25 km |
GRIB2 |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.guam.cwl.grib2 |
Hourly combined water level (m, LMSL)
field on Regional Guam gridded files for all forecast hours |
1.25 km |
GRIB2 |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.hotstart.stofs3d.nc |
Model
run hotstart file (this serves as the restart file,
to provide initial 3-D ocean state variables for the next cycle) |
Native model |
NetCDF |
|
schout_adcirc_YYYYMMDD.nc |
Hourly fields of combined (subtidal plus tidal)
water level (m, LMSL), maximum water level disturbance, time of occurrence of
maximum water level/maximum water level disturbance, and 10 m wind field on
ADCIRC-like triangular grid; totally three files for the nowcast (n023 to
n000), and forecast guidance days 1 (f001 to f024), 2 (f025 to f048). |
Triangular
grid |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.field2d_fhhh1_hhh2.nc |
Hourly forecast guidance (fhhh1 to fhhh2)
fields of combined water level (m, LMSL), water temperature, salinity, and
horizontal water velocity at both surface and bottom, and horizontal water
velocity at 4.5 m below the water surface. hhh1_hhh2 denotes
{001_012,013_024,025_036,037_048}. |
Native
model |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.field2d_nhhh1_hhh2.nc |
Hourly nowcast guidance (n023 to n000) fields
of combined water level (m, LMSL), and water temperature, salinity,
horizontal water velocity at both surface and bottom, and horizontal water
velocity at 4.5 m below the water surface. hhh1_hhh2 denotes {001_012,013_024}. |
Native
model |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.fields.out2d_fhhh1_hhh2.nc |
Hourly forecast (f001 to f048) fields of
combined water level (m, LMSL) and water-depth averaged horizontal water
velocity. hhh1_hhh2 denotes {001_012,013_024,025_036,037_048}. |
Native
model |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.fields.out2d_nhhh1_hhh2.nc |
Hourly nowcast (n023 to n000) fields of
combined water level (m, LMSL) and water-depth averaged horizontal water
velocity. hhh1_hhh2 denotes {001_012,013_024}. |
Native
model |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.fields.cwl.maxele.nc |
Maximum of nowcast and forecast (hours n023 to
n000, f001 to f048) combined water level (m, LMSL) field |
Native
model |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.fcast.station.profile.nc |
Hourly forecast (f001 to f048) combined water
level (m, LMSL) and horizontal 10 m wind velocity, and vertical profiles of
water temperature, salinity, horizontal water velocity at verification sites |
-- |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.ncast.station.profile.nc |
Hourly nowcast (n023 to
n000) combined water level (m, LMSL) and horizontal 10 m wind velocity, and
vertical profiles of water temperature, salinity, horizontal water velocity
at verification sites |
-- |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.points.cwl.nc |
Six-minute nowcast and
forecast combined water level (m, LMSL) at verification sites |
-- |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.points.cwl.temp.salt.vel.nc |
Six-minute nowcast and
forecast combined water level (m, LMSL), surface water temperature, surface
salinity, and surface horizontal water velocity at verification sites |
-- |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.fields.zCoordinates_
fhhh1_hhh2.nc |
Hourly
forecast (between hours f001 and f048) 3-D z-coordinates. hhh1_hhh2 denotes
{001_012,013_024,025_036,037_048}. |
Native model |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.fields.zCoordinates_nhhh1_hhh2.nc |
Hourly
nowcast (between hours n023 and n000) 3-D z-coordinates. hhh1_hhh2 denotes
{001_012,013_024}. |
Native model |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.fields.horizontalVelX_
fhhh1_hhh2.nc |
Hourly
forecast (between hours f001 and f048) 3-D horizontal water velocity fields
in east-west direction. hhh1_hhh2 denotes {001_012,013_024,025_036,037_048}. |
Native model |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.fields.horizontalVelX_nhhh1_hhh2.nc |
Hourly
nowcast (between hours n023 and n000) 3-D horizontal water velocity fields in
east-west direction. hhh1_hhh2 denotes {001_012,013_024}. |
Native model |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.fields.horizontalVelY_
fhhh1_hhh2.nc |
Hourly
forecast (between hours f001 and f048) 3-D horizontal water velocity fields
in north-south direction. hhh1_hhh2 denotes
{001_012,013_024,025_036,037_048}. |
Native model |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.fields.horizontalVelY_nhhh1_hhh2.nc |
Hourly
nowcast (between hours n023 and n000) 3-D horizontal water velocity fields in
north-south direction. hhh1_hhh2 denotes {001_012,013_024}. |
Native model |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.fields.verticalVel_
fhhh1_hhh2.nc |
Hourly
forecast (between hours f001 and f048) 3-D vertical water velocity fields in
north-south direction. hhh1_hhh2 denotes {001_012,013_024,025_036,037_048}. |
Native model |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.fields.verticalVel_
nhhh1_hhh2.nc |
Hourly
nowcast (between hours n023 and n000) 3-D vertical water velocity fields in
north-south direction. hhh1_hhh2 denotes {001_012,013_024}. |
Native model |
NetCDF |
|
|
|
|
|
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.fields.salinity_
fhhh1_hhh2.nc |
Hourly forecast
(between hours f001 and f048) 3-D salinity fields. hhh1_hhh2 denotes
{001_012,013_024,025_036,037_048}. |
Native model |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.fields.salinity_nhhh1_hhh2.nc |
Hourly nowcast
(between hours n023 and n000) 3-D salinity fields. hhh1_hhh2 denotes
{001_012,013_024}. |
Native model |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.fields.temperature_
fhhh1_hhh2.nc |
Hourly forecast
(between hours f001 and f048) 3-D temperature fields. hhh1_hhh2 denotes
{001_012,013_024,025_036,037_048}. |
Native model |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.fields.temperature_nhhh1_hhh2.nc |
Hourly nowcast
(between hours n023 and n000) 3-D temperature fields. hhh1_hhh2 denotes
{001_012,013_024}. |
Native model |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.fields.diffusivity_
fhhh1_hhh2.nc |
Hourly
forecast (between hours f001 and f048) 3-D diffusivity fields. hhh1_hhh2
denotes {001_012,013_024,025_036,037_048}. |
Native model |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.fields.diffusivity_nhhh1_hhh2.nc |
Hourly
nowcast (between hours n023 and n000) 3-D diffusivity fields. hhh1_hhh2
denotes {001_012,013_024}. |
Native model |
NetCDF |
|
30-minute
combined water level (ft, MLLW) at verification sites, for the entire
forecast period |
-- |
SHEF |
|
|
stofs_3d_pac.t12z.points.autoval.cwl.nc |
Six-minute
station time series water level (m, MSL) forecast files at verification sites
(shortened station list used for NOAA autovalidation) |
-- |
NetCDF |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.disturbance.fHHH.gpkg |
Hourly
water level disturbance in the forecast period |
Native model |
GPKG |
|
stofs_3d_pac.tCCz.disturbance.nHHH.gpkg |
Hourly
water level disturbance in the nowcast period |
Native model |
GPKG |
|
wmo/grib2_stofs_3d_pac.t12z.guam.cwl |
Hourly
combined water level (m, LMSL) field on Regional Guam gridded files for all
forecast hours |
1.25 km |
CWL |
|
wmo/grib2_stofs_3d_pac.t12z.hawaii.cwl |
Hourly
combined water level (m, LMSL) field on Regional Hawaii gridded files for all
forecast hours |
2.5 km |
CWL |
|
wmo/grib2_stofs_3d_pac.t12z.northpacific.cwl |
Hourly
combined water level (m, LMSL) field on Regional North Pacific gridded files
for all forecast hours |
2.5 km |
CWL |
|
wmo/grib2_stofs_3d_pac.t12z.alaska.cwl |
Hourly
combined water level (m, LMSL) field on Regional Alaska gridded files for all
forecast hours |
2.5 km |
CWL |
|
wmo/grib2_stofs_3d_pac.t12z.conus.west.cwl |
Hourly
combined water level (m, LMSL) field on Regional Western CONUS gridded files
for all forecast hours |
2.5 km |
CWL |
|
rerun/ |
This
is the folder that holds the initial condition and forcing files for the
system run on YYYYMMDD. The files are stored for the NOAA internal reference.
Hence no further details are given here. |
-- |
-- |
|
../post_processing/ |
This is
the folder that holds post processing for STOFS-3D-Pacific, including skill
assessment. The files are mainly stored for NOAA internal reference. Hence no
further details are given here. |
-- |
-- |
|
../para/ |
This
is the folder that holds the parallel run (i.e. before the model or model
upgrade is operational) for STOFS-3D-Pacific. The files are mainly stored for
NOAA internal reference. Hence no further details are given here. |
-- |
-- |
|
../para1/ |
This
is the folder that holds the parallel run (i.e. before the model or model
upgrade is operational) for STOFS-3D-Pacific. The files are mainly stored for
NOAA internal reference. Hence no further details are given here. |
-- |
-- |
|
../para1_pro/ |
This
is the folder that holds the parallel run (i.e. before the model or model
upgrade is operational) for STOFS-3D-Pacific. The files are mainly stored for
NOAA internal reference. Hence no further details are given here. |
-- |
-- |
Autoval Coastline File https://noaa-nos-stofs3d-pds.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html#STOFS-3D-Pac/coastline/coastline.dat
|
SCHISM Static Files |
stofs-3d-pac
v3.1: August 13, 2026 12 UTC cycle – present https://noaa-nos-stofs3d-pds.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html#STOFS-3D-Pac/staticfiles/v3.1/ |
|
File
Name |
Content |
|
stofs_3d_pac_albedo.gr3 |
Specification of the magnitudes of albedo |
|
stofs_3d_pac_diffmax.gr3 |
Specification of maximum diffusivity/viscosity |
|
stofs_3d_pac_diffmin.gr3 |
Specification of minimum diffusivity/viscosity |
|
stofs_3d_pac_drag.gr3 |
Bottom friction coefficient on model grid |
|
stofs_3d_pac_hgrid.2dm |
node centered spatial data and mesh connectivity |
|
stofs_3d_pac_hgrid.gr3 |
node centered spatial data and mesh connectivity |
|
stofs_3d_pac_hgrid.ll |
node centered spatial data and mesh connectivity |
|
stofs_3d_pac_param.nml_6globaloutput |
Parameter name list file. The corresponding file
for each run cycle is in rerun/ stofs_3d_pac.t12z.param.nml |
|
stofs_3d_pac_partition.prop |
Specification of model domain partition in support
of multi-processor parallel computation |
|
stofs_3d_pac_shapiro.gr3 |
Coefficient of the Shapiro filter |
|
stofs_3d_pac_station.in |
Specification of the locations and physical
parameters for the station time series output |
|
stofs_3d_pac_tvd.prop |
Specification of horizontal regions for various
types of numerical, horizontal transport schemes (e.g., upwind or TVD/WENO) |
|
stofs_3d_pac_vgrid.in |
Vertical grid file |
|
stofs_3d_pac_watertype.gr3 |
Specification of water types |
|
stofs_3d_pac_windrot_geo2proj.gr3 |
Angle differences between model’s y-axis and true
north |
For example:
·
noaa-nos-stofs3d-pds/STOFS-3D-Pac/stofs_3d_pac.20260816/stofs_3d_pac.t12z.conus.west.cwl.grib2
·
noaa-nos-stofs3d-pds/STOFS-3D-Pac/stofs_3d_pac.20260816/stofs_3d_pac.t12z.field2d_f001_012.nc
·
noaa-nos-stofs3d-pds/STOFS-3D-Pac/stofs_3d_pac.20260816/stofs_3d_pac.t12z.points.cwl.shef
·
noaa-nos-stofs3d-pds/STOFS-3D-Pac/stofs_3d_pac.20260816/stofs_3d_pac.t12z.disturbance.f005.gpkg
·
etc.
For questions regarding data content or quality, visit the STOFS site. For any questions regarding data delivery not associated with this platform or any general questions regarding the NOAA Open Data Dissemination (NODD), email nodd@noaa.gov.