Announcing GEOGloWS Version 2 Partial Launch and AWS Collaboration

[GEOGloWS User Group]

Hello GEOGloWS Community!

GEOGloWS V2 is nearly completed. We are working diligently to work through some computational challenges while implementing new code and datasets for computing forecasts on the operational computer center in Bologna Italy.

In the mean time, I'm please to announce that all other datasets except for the daily forecasts are published and ready for you to download and use. This includes the historical simulations, return periods, stream centerline GIS datasets, and model configuration files. We are improving access to this data with a new collaboration with the AWS Open Data Program. All GEOGloWS V2 datasets, except for the daily forecasts, are stored by AWS and are free to download, no AWS account or credit card is required. This makes data retrieval faster and easier than ever. Bulk downloads of all GEOGloWS data is now easier than ever.

After we complete the implementation of computing version 2 forecasts, we will also release an update to the access and visualization tools that depend on the forecasts. There will be a revised Hydroviewer web app, update the GEOGloWS layer on the Esri Living Atlas, release a new version of the pygeoglows Python package.

Since the forecasts are taking longer than we hoped to roll out, there will be a shorter window where forecasts will simultaneously be available on the version 1 stream network as well as the version 2 network. Forecasts on the current version 1 stream network will no longer be available on January 1 2024. I therefore encourage you not to wait to get started using the new streams and historical data. Most applications of GEOGloWS data start with knowing the ID number of a river which you use to find data from the hydrologic model and GIS datasets. You can start the transition to finding new river numbers today.

Please visit https://data.geoglows.org for tutorials, explanations of datasets, and instructions for downloading data from AWS. This website is regularly being updated with more guides, fact sheets, tutorials, and useful links. We welcome feedback about what instructions are most useful.

I am eager to roll out even more new and improved tools as soon as the forecasts for version 2 become available.

On behalf of the GEOGloWS Team,

Riley Hales

Technical Director