CONUS404 is a unique, high-resolution hydro-climate dataset appropriate for forcing hydrological models and conducting meteorological analysis over the contiguous United States. CONUS404, so named because it covers the CONtiguous United States for 40 years at 4-km resolution, was produced by the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model simulations run by National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) as part of a collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Water Mission Area.  In fact, CONUS404 includes 43 years of data (water years 1980-2022) and the spatial domain extends beyond the CONUS into Canada and Mexico, thereby capturing transboundary river basins and covering all contributing areas for the CONUS surface waters. 

The CONUS404 dataset, produced using WRF version 3.9.1.1, is the successor to the CONUS1 dataset (Liu and others, 2017) with improved representation of weather and climate conditions in the central United States due to the addition of a shallow groundwater module and several other improvements in the Noah-Multiparameterization (Noah-MP) Land Surface Model.  It also uses a more up-to-date and higher-resolution reanalysis dataset (ERA5; Hersbach and others, 2020) as input and covers a longer period than CONUS1.    

The full CONUS404 simulation output files are being archived on the USGS’s Black Pearl tape drive system. In order to provide access to the entire output dataset, we have created a Globus access portal for the raw output files, which can be found here: https://app.globus.org/file-manager?origin_id=39161d64-419d-4cc4-853f-f6e737644eb4&origin_path=%2F. In order to access the files, you will need to log in with an existing Globus account or create one and then perform a file transfer. If you are transferring the files to your local computer, you will also want to install and set up Globus Connect Personal to turn your local machine into an available Globus endpoint. There is no cost for a Globus account. Once Globus is set up, you are ready to access the raw output files. Please note that filenames include characters (e.g. ":") that are not valid on Windows systems; intended usage of these files is on Unix systems.

The data are organized into folders by water year (for example, “WY2020”). Inside each water year folder, you will find three sets of files, each of which has a different time step.  

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