ENSOFORECAST: the record and its files
The Lamont-Doherty El Niño forecast fields as the IRI Data Library kept them: every file as received, a checksum for each, the catalog documentation and the chain of custody.
- The record
- Monthly sea-surface temperature anomaly fields for the tropical Pacific from the Zebiak and Cane coupled model, at leads of 3, 6, 9 and 12 months, with the observed anomalies, plus the model inputs kept in the same directory.
- Made by
- The climate group at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University. The model is the one Stephen E. Zebiak and Mark A. Cane described in 1987.
- Kept by
- The IRI Data Library at Columbia University, as the catalog entry SOURCES/.ENSOFORECAST, formerly at https://iridl.ldeo.columbia.edu/SOURCES/.ENSOFORECAST/. IRI dates the directory's last update to May 2000.
- Transferred
- By Aaron Kaplan of IRI on 21 October 2026, as one tar archive of the whole directory with its MD5 checksum, as the Data Library wound down.
- Received
- Downloaded and verified on 22 October 2026: the MD5 matched, and 49 files were extracted and hashed one by one.
- Covers
- Target months from January 1972 into 2001, per the catalog. The files record no issue dates, and the early years are hindcasts made after the fact.
- Files
- 49 files, 118.2 MB in all, each with a SHA-256 and an MD5 checksum.
Start here
The files a reader opens first. Each download is the file as received; the checksum beside it is in the sums file below.
- LDEO1, 3-month leaddata/fc03mon.cdf1.7 MB · 1972-01 to 2000-05Download
- LDEO1, 6-month leaddata/fc06mon.cdf1.7 MB · 1972-01 to 2000-08Download
- LDEO1, 9-month leaddata/fc09mon.cdf1.8 MB · 1972-01 to 2000-11Download
- LDEO1, 12-month leaddata/fc12mon.cdf1.8 MB · 1972-01 to 2001-02Download
- LDEO2, 3-month leaddata/fc2_03mon.cdf1.6 MB · 1972-01 to 1998-04Download
- LDEO2, 6-month leaddata/fc2_06mon.cdf1.6 MB · 1972-01 to 1998-07Download
- LDEO2, 9-month leaddata/fc2_09mon.cdf1.6 MB · 1972-01 to 1998-10Download
- LDEO2, 12-month leaddata/fc2_12mon.cdf1.6 MB · 1972-01 to 1999-01Download
- Observed anomaliesdata/ossta.cdf1.7 MB · 1972-01 to 2000-02Download
Every file
49 files · 118.2 MB
The nine catalog files
The files IRI's catalog entry reads: the two model versions at four leads each, and the observed anomalies. netCDF classic.
| File | Size | Format | Covers | SHA-256 | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| data/fc03mon.cdf | 1.7 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 2000-05 | 220e119d…e18a | Download |
| data/fc06mon.cdf | 1.7 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 2000-08 | b0fade4a…ccab | Download |
| data/fc09mon.cdf | 1.8 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 2000-11 | d732cc58…ac67 | Download |
| data/fc12mon.cdf | 1.8 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 2001-02 | 030c4993…bec2 | Download |
| data/fc2_03mon.cdf | 1.6 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 1998-04 | 50cc84ac…dd0e | Download |
| data/fc2_06mon.cdf | 1.6 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 1998-07 | 238a7f82…37c2 | Download |
| data/fc2_09mon.cdf | 1.6 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 1998-10 | a14d7875…b5a6 | Download |
| data/fc2_12mon.cdf | 1.6 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 1999-01 | 3d1b7c13…b5d2 | Download |
| data/ossta.cdf | 1.7 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 2000-02 | 14bbf370…cc1f | Download |
Other LDEO2 leads
Fifteen further LDEO2 lead files, 0 to 18 months, that sat in the directory without a catalog entry. netCDF classic.
| File | Size | Format | Covers | SHA-256 | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| data/fc2_00mon.cdf | 1.6 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 1997-09 | 760431bd…3b5b | Download |
| data/fc2_01mon.cdf | 1.6 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 1997-10 | a3691b1c…6d0b | Download |
| data/fc2_02mon.cdf | 1.6 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 1997-11 | 07ce9b7e…bb9f | Download |
| data/fc2_04mon.cdf | 1.6 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 1998-01 | 5b902cee…53c1 | Download |
| data/fc2_05mon.cdf | 1.6 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 1998-02 | 28f03381…e2ba | Download |
| data/fc2_07mon.cdf | 1.6 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 1998-04 | 2bc96ccb…de6e | Download |
| data/fc2_08mon.cdf | 1.6 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 1998-05 | 77fb7ffa…d126 | Download |
| data/fc2_10mon.cdf | 1.6 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 1998-07 | 13569506…98da | Download |
| data/fc2_11mon.cdf | 1.6 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 1998-08 | 8f3748ae…6462 | Download |
| data/fc2_13mon.cdf | 1.6 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 1998-10 | 7e53512f…7ef9 | Download |
| data/fc2_14mon.cdf | 1.6 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 1998-11 | 3b467101…fa37 | Download |
| data/fc2_15mon.cdf | 1.6 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 1998-12 | e3c37798…4b16 | Download |
| data/fc2_16mon.cdf | 1.6 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 1999-01 | 0e25b475…cd05 | Download |
| data/fc2_17mon.cdf | 1.6 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 1999-02 | 3661305c…dbc2 | Download |
| data/fc2_18mon.cdf | 1.7 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1972-01 to 1999-03 | 6ee8586c…edf5 | Download |
ERBE radiation files
Five netCDF files of surface radiation budget fields from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment, kept alongside the forecasts.
| File | Size | Format | Covers | SHA-256 | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| data/erbe.sarb/erbe.glob.cdf | 2.0 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1985-02 to 1988-12 | b7adc75d…85d6 | Download |
| data/erbe.sarb/erbe.glob.cld.mean.cdf | 506 KB | netCDF CDF-1 | eed3f1cc…76c9 | Download | |
| data/erbe.sarb/erbe.glob.clr.mean.cdf | 506 KB | netCDF CDF-1 | 06655855…53e2 | Download | |
| data/erbe.sarb/erbe.glob.for.mean.cdf | 506 KB | netCDF CDF-1 | 38e65746…e107 | Download | |
| data/erbe.sarb/erbe.part.cdf | 1.7 MB | netCDF CDF-1 | 1985-01 to 1989-12 | 5d281d19…ef63 | Download |
Model inputs and other files
Fortran unformatted records, text and binary files whose names point to sea-surface temperature, wind stress and pressure inputs. Their contents are interpreted from their names only, and the record says so.
| File | Size | Format | Covers | SHA-256 | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| data/CHRIS4yrHCHRIS-labelled binary input. The name does not establish the contributor, variable, grid, units or dates. Tentative, from the file name. | 1.6 MB | binary unidentified | bd1bffd3…ce7a | Download | |
| data/CHRIS4yrrmCHRIS-labelled binary input. The name does not establish the contributor, variable, grid, units or dates. Tentative, from the file name. | 1.6 MB | binary unidentified | 217f59f8…8dc9 | Download | |
| data/CHRISclimoCHRIS-labelled binary input. The name does not establish the contributor, variable, grid, units or dates. Tentative, from the file name. | 89 KB | binary unidentified | 982663e5…00a7 | Download | |
| data/cac.sstaCAC-labelled SST-related input, suggested by the filename. The expansions of suffixes and any reference period are not established. Tentative, from the file name. | 4.0 MB | Fortran unformatted sequential big-endian | 774fccf9…ad47 | Download | |
| data/cac.sstfCAC-labelled SST-related input, suggested by the filename. The expansions of suffixes and any reference period are not established. Tentative, from the file name. | 4.0 MB | Fortran unformatted sequential big-endian | 76b2ef5e…0936 | Download | |
| data/cac.sstmCAC-labelled SST-related input, suggested by the filename. The expansions of suffixes and any reference period are not established. Tentative, from the file name. | 121 KB | Fortran unformatted sequential big-endian | b8fc01fe…95d7 | Download | |
| data/cacsm.sstaCAC-labelled SST-related input, suggested by the filename. The expansions of suffixes and any reference period are not established. Tentative, from the file name. | 4.0 MB | Fortran unformatted sequential big-endian | 286bdfda…2b28 | Download | |
| data/cacsm.sstfCAC-labelled SST-related input, suggested by the filename. The expansions of suffixes and any reference period are not established. Tentative, from the file name. | 4.0 MB | Fortran unformatted sequential big-endian | fd782a8f…56e1 | Download | |
| data/fsu.anomFSU-labelled input, suggested by the filename. IRI descriptions/ensoforecasts.html mentions FSU pseudo-stress forcing but does not identify this individual file or its layout. Tentative, from the file name. | 10.0 MB | Fortran unformatted sequential big-endian | 69c71bc3…61e2 | Download | |
| data/fsu.fullFSU-labelled input, suggested by the filename. IRI descriptions/ensoforecasts.html mentions FSU pseudo-stress forcing but does not identify this individual file or its layout. Tentative, from the file name. | 10.0 MB | Fortran unformatted sequential big-endian | 10ac44da…954b | Download | |
| data/fsu.meanFSU-labelled input, suggested by the filename. IRI descriptions/ensoforecasts.html mentions FSU pseudo-stress forcing but does not identify this individual file or its layout. Tentative, from the file name. | 242 KB | Fortran unformatted sequential big-endian | 67660523…6df5 | Download | |
| data/fsu4yrclim.anoFSU-labelled input, suggested by the filename. IRI descriptions/ensoforecasts.html mentions FSU pseudo-stress forcing but does not identify this individual file or its layout. Tentative, from the file name. | 9.2 MB | Fortran unformatted sequential big-endian | 12c3ead4…7d1d | Download | |
| data/fsusm.fullFSU-labelled input, suggested by the filename. IRI descriptions/ensoforecasts.html mentions FSU pseudo-stress forcing but does not identify this individual file or its layout. Tentative, from the file name. | 9.2 MB | Fortran unformatted sequential big-endian | 22fe7874…212d | Download | |
| data/fsusm4yrclim.aFSU-labelled input, suggested by the filename. IRI descriptions/ensoforecasts.html mentions FSU pseudo-stress forcing but does not identify this individual file or its layout. Tentative, from the file name. | 9.2 MB | Fortran unformatted sequential big-endian | cfba3d72…55a8 | Download | |
| data/rcmstressStress-labelled input. The meaning of rcm, units, grid and dates have not been established. Tentative, from the file name. | 274 KB | Fortran unformatted sequential big-endian | 4a4ef729…d7be | Download | |
| data/servain.tau.RAServain- and tau-labelled binary input. Its variable, grid, units and dates have not been established. Tentative, from the file name. | 2.0 MB | binary unidentified | c360714b…cac6 | Download | |
| data/slp.7989SLP fields indicated by repeated text headers. The headers have two-digit year tokens; no century, grid, units or reference period is declared. Tentative, from the file name. | 778 KB | ASCII text | 69b2dcf7…8d6b | Download | |
| data/tau7088.anomTau-labelled input. Filename digits and suffixes are not treated as validated dates, units or a reference period. Tentative, from the file name. | 768 KB | Fortran unformatted sequential big-endian | e15a5393…43cd | Download | |
| data/tau8189amTau-labelled input. Filename digits and suffixes are not treated as validated dates, units or a reference period. Tentative, from the file name. | 2.5 MB | Fortran unformatted sequential big-endian | 986a93e4…9158 | Download | |
| data/test1 | 8 B | ASCII text | 233d4809…6a68 | Download |
Documentation
IRI's catalog description, written by Stephen Zebiak, says the fields were produced monthly with the Zebiak and Cane coupled model, initialised with the FSU pseudo-stress product, lag-averaged over six consecutive monthly starts, post-processed with a singular value decomposition to remove systematic spatial pattern errors, and archived from January 1972 as verification time. The description and the catalog entry are kept with the record as fetched from IRI's public repository.
Integrity
Every file is published byte for byte as received. The sums files list a checksum for each; after downloading the files into one folder, one line checks them all:
sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS
MD5 of the archive as sent by the keeper: 1e8b1b29f8e77697fbdbc90d3ca168ac · SHA-256 ee0e93452bafaa08e64ade880c5b548d389d0653099be6e8b19de79e112037c7
Provenance
- 1987Stephen E. Zebiak and Mark A. Cane describe the coupled model in Monthly Weather Review.
- 1972 to 2001Target months covered by the archived fields, per IRI's catalog. The files carry no issue dates.
- May 2000Last update of the directory, according to IRI.
- 21 October 2026Aaron Kaplan of IRI packs the whole directory into one tar archive, states its MD5 checksum and sends it to Vultax Research as the Data Library winds down.
- 22 October 2026The archive is downloaded and its MD5 matches. 49 files are extracted and hashed; nothing is converted.
- 25 October 2026The reading edition is published.
- 26 October 2026This record and the files are published.
Rights and reuse
IRI's alternate-sources sheet lists ENSOFORECAST as unrestricted and IRI transferred the directory to Vultax for public hosting on 21 October 2026. No written licence accompanies the files. Please cite the archive and the model as below, and name IRI and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory as the source. If IRI states reuse terms, this record will carry them.
Cite this record
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory climate group, ENSOFORECAST: equatorial Pacific SSTA forecasts, kept by the IRI Data Library, Columbia University, directory last updated May 2000. Copy held by Vultax Research at https://vultax.com/archive/ensoforecast, received 21 October 2026. Model: S. E. Zebiak and M. A. Cane, A Model El Niño-Southern Oscillation, Monthly Weather Review 115, 1987, 2262 to 2278.
Corrections
Published 26 October 2026. If a file, checksum or statement on this page ever changes, the change is dated in the change log; the files themselves are never altered. Corrections and questions: [email protected].