CICE Input Data
Data files for testing CICE are too large to be kept on github. The data files necessary for testing CICE have been published on Zenodo and can be found at the path listed for each dataset. Details about each dataset can be found at the link following the Zenodo DOI.
The data files available below are designed only for testing the code, not for use in production runs or as observational data. Please do not publish results based on these data sets. Specific instructions for setting up standard tests (e.g. regression, restart) are in the User's Guide section of the documentation.
A guide to the directory structure of the CICE input data is also available. Tar files provided below will automatically unpack with this structure.
| File name | size | DOI and download link | compatible code versions | date added(+)/ deprecated(-) | file description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| gx3 Datasets | |||||
| CICE gx3 grid and initial condition files | 27 Mb |  |
CICE6.1.1+ | +03/2021 | more info |
| CICE gx3 JRA55do forcing files | 3.7 Gb |  |
CICE6.4+ | +07/2023 | more info |
| CICE gx3 JRA55 forcing files | 3.7 Gb |  |
CICE6.0.2+ | +10/2019 | more info |
| CICE gx3 WW3 forcing files | 2.9 Mb |  |
CICE6.1.0+ | +12/2019 | more info |
| CICE gx3 NCAR_bulk forcing files | 428 Mb |  |
All | more info | |
| gx1 Datasets | |||||
| CICE gx1 grid and initial condition files | 231 Mb |  |
CICE6.2+ | +08/2021 | more info |
| CICE gx1 JRA55 forcing files | 38 Gb |  |
CICE6.1.1+ | +3/2020 | more info |
| The JRA-55 reanalysis: general specifications and basic characteristics | |||||
| J. Meteor. Soc. Jpn, 93 (2015), pp. 5-48, 10.2151/jmsj.2015-001S. Kobayashi, Y. Ota, Y. Harada, A. Ebita, M. Moriya, H. Onoda, K. Onogi, H. Kamahori, C. Kobayashi, H. Endo, K. Miyaoka, K. Takahashi | |||||
| The JRA-55 reanalysis: general specifications and basic characteristics | |||||
| J. Meteor. Soc. Jpn, 93 (2015), pp. 5-48, 10.2151/jmsj.2015-001 | |||||
| CICE gx1 JRA55 forcing files by year | 38 Gb |  |
CICE6.1.1+ | +3/2020 | more info |
| CICE gx1 WOA forcing files | 17 Mb |  |
All | more info | |
| CICE gx1 COREII forcing files | 18 Gb |  |
-CICE6.3.0 | -10/2021 | more info |
| CESM slab ocean forcing | 24 MB |  |
CICE6.1+ | +04/2021 | more info |
| tx1 Datasets | |||||
| CICE tx1 grid and initial condition files | 871 Kb |  |
CICE6.0.2+ | +5/2020 | more info |
| CICE tx1 JRA55 forcing files | 18 Gb |  |
CICE6.1.1+ | +5/2020 | more info |
| CICE tx1 JRA55 forcing files by year | 18 Gb |  |
CICE6.1.1+ | +5/2020 | more info |
| Resolution Independent Datasets | |||||
| CICE and Icepack SNICAR optical properties | 378 Kb |  |
CICE6.2+ | +1/2021 | [more info] |
-
Click on the DOI link from the file availability table.
-
Find the file you want to download.
-
Download the file
3a. Direct download
Click on either the file name or the "Download" button on zenodo to download the data directly to your machine.
3b. Download at the command line
Cut and paste the link to the link address for the file. Then, at the command line on the system to which you want to download the data, use the
wget(orcurl) command to download.
Linux:wget $linkmacOS:
curl -O $link -
Optional, but recommended: check the MD5 checksum for the downloaded file against the provided checksum on Zenodo (below the filename).
Linux:md5sum $filemacOS:
md5 $file
For any new files that will be added to the CICE Input Data files, please note the following:
- File names must be unique from any other files in the archive.
- The grid name should be included in the file name whenever possible.
- New grid or initial condition files for an existing dataset will be added to the existing grid and initial condition tar files. These new files added must have unique file names from the existing files.
- Existing forcing datasets will be updated only if there are errors found in the existing data.
- New forcing datasets for a given grid will be added under
CICE_data/forcing/<grid>/in a new directory. These files will also be made available as an entirely new tar file. - Any new grid that is added will conform to the existing data structure, naming, and format. The same applies to initial condition and forcing files associated with the new grid.
An example of how testing data is organized follows. We recommend setting up a similar path structure. You will need to set up your own 'inputdata' path, but the organization of the CICE_data top level directory should follow the structure below and should automatically unpack as so from the ftp's *.tar.gz files. You will need to extract the data from the downloaded *tar.gz files.
If you plan to use these data for testing previous versions of CICE (V1-V5), please note that the directory structure has changed and therefore the data files will need to be moved into the proper directories for testing previous releases.
inputdata = '/glade/p/cesm/pcwg_dev/'
CICE_data/
forcing/
gx1/
CESM/
MONTHLY/
ocean_forcing_clim_2D_gx1.nc
COREII/
4XDAILY/
u_10*.data
v_10*.data
q_10*.dat
t_10*.dat
MONTHLY/
cldf.omip.dat
prec.nmyr.dat
JRA55/
8XDAILY/
JRA55_03hr_forcing_2005.nc
JRA55_03hr_forcing_2006.nc
JRA55_03hr_forcing_2007.nc
JRA55_03hr_forcing_2008.nc
JRA55_03hr_forcing_2009.nc
WOA/
MONTHLY/
nitrate_climatologyWOA_gx1v6f_20150107.nc
silicate_climatologyWOA_gx1v6f_20150107.nc
gx3/
ww3.20100101_efreq_remapgx3.nc
NCAR_bulk/
4XDAILY/
u_10.1997.data
v_10.1997.data
q_10.1997.dat
t_10.1997.dat
dn10.1997.dat
MONTHLY/
cldf.1997.dat
prec.1997.dat
swdn.1997.dat
JRA55/
8XDAILY/
JRA55_gx3_03hr_forcing_2005.nc
JRA55_gx3_03hr_forcing_2006.nc
JRA55_gx3_03hr_forcing_2007.nc
JRA55_gx3_03hr_forcing_2008.nc
JRA55_gx3_03hr_forcing_2009.nc
tx1/
JRA55/
8XDAILY/
JRA55_03hr_forcing_tx1_2005.nc
JRA55_03hr_forcing_tx1_2006.nc
JRA55_03hr_forcing_tx1_2007.nc
JRA55_03hr_forcing_tx1_2008.nc
JRA55_03hr_forcing_tx1_2009.nc
snicar_drdt_bst_fit_60_c04262019.nc
snicar_optics_5bnd_snow_and_aerosols.nc
grid/
gx1/
grid_gx1.bin
kmt_gx1.bin
global_gx1.bathy.nc
cice62_gx1_wghtmask.nc
gx3/
grid_gx3.bin
kmt_gx3.bin
grid_gx3.nc
kmt_gx3.nc
global_gx3.bathy.nc
tx1/
grid_tx1.bin
kmt_tx1.bin
tx1_bathy.nc
ic/
gx1/
iced_gx1_v5.nc
iced_gx1_v6.2005-01-01.nc
iced_gx1_v6.2005-02-01.nc
iced_gx1_v6.2005-03-01.nc
iced_gx1_v6.2005-04-01.nc
iced_gx1_v6.2005-05-01.nc
iced_gx1_v6.2005-06-01.nc
iced_gx1_v6.2005-07-01.nc
iced_gx1_v6.2005-08-01.nc
iced_gx1_v6.2005-09-01.nc
iced_gx1_v6.2005-10-01.nc
iced_gx1_v6.2005-11-01.nc
iced_gx1_v6.2005-12-01.nc
gx3/
iced_gx3_v5.nc
iced_gx3_v6.2005-01-01.nc
iced_gx3_v6.2005-02-01.nc
iced_gx3_v6.2005-03-01.nc
iced_gx3_v6.2005-04-01.nc
iced_gx3_v6.2005-05-01.nc
iced_gx3_v6.2005-06-01.nc
iced_gx3_v6.2005-07-01.nc
iced_gx3_v6.2005-08-01.nc
iced_gx3_v6.2005-09-01.nc
iced_gx3_v6.2005-10-01.nc
iced_gx3_v6.2005-11-01.nc
iced_gx3_v6.2005-12-01.nc
tx1/
iced_tx1_v5.nc
The gx3 grid is nominal three-degree resolution. Grid and kmt file are provided in the grid tar file. Initial conditions are also available.
The original JRA55 forcing Kobayashi et al. 2015 is the operational product from the Japanese Meteorological Agency. The JRA55do forcing (Tsujino et. al 2018) is a corrected version specifically for coupled sea ice-ocean simulations. The JRA55 and JRA55do files are 8x daily data (every 3hr) by year with the following fields: X-ward wind (wndewd; m/s), Y-ward wind (wndnwd; m/s), Specific Humidity (spchmd; kg/kg), Air Temperature (airtmp; K), Total Precipitation (ttlpcp; kg/(m2*s) ), Downward Surface Longwave (dlwsfc; W/m2), and Downward Surface Shortwave (glbrad; W/m2). As a result, there is no need for monthly files or cloud fraction when using the JRA55 or JRA55do forcing. Five years (2005-2009) of forcing data are available. If you publish a paper using the JRA55 or JRA55do dataset please be sure to cite the appropriate paper.
S. Kobayashi, Y. Ota, Y. Harada, A. Ebita, M. Moriya, H. Onoda, K. Onogi, H. Kamahori, C. Kobayashi, H. Endo, K. Miyaoka, K. Takahashi The JRA-55 reanalysis: general specifications and basic characteristics J. Meteor. Soc. Jpn, 93 (2015), pp. 5-48, https://doi.org/10.2151/jmsj.2015-001.
Tsujino, H., S. Urakawa, H. Nakano, R.J. Small, W.M. Kim, S.G. Yeager, et al. (2018). JRA‐55 based surface dataset for driving ocean–sea‐ice models (JRA55‐do). Ocean Modelling. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2018.07.002
Surface ocean wave forcing derived from the Wavewatch III (WW3) model. This is a single day of the wave spectral forcing (efreq; m2*s) that is necessary for the floe size distribution (FSD) within CICE. It is provided only for testing purposes and should not be used for publications. Users should produce their own spectral wave input. The data were derived from the wave-ice coupled run described in the following paper.
Roach, L.A., C.M. Bitz, C. Horvat, S.M. Dean. (2019). Advances in modelling interactions between sea ice and ocean surface waves. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019MS001836
The WW3 model is documented in:
WAVEWATCH III Development Group. (2016). User manual and system documentation of WAVEWATCH III, version 5.16. Tech. Note 329, NOAA/NWS/NCEP/MMAB, College Park, MD, USA.
NCAR_bulk forcing files are are available for one year (1997). Fields available 4x daily (every 6hr) at 10 meters above the surface for: zonal (u_10; m/s) and meridional (v_10; m/s) wind, specific humidity (q_10; kg/kg), air temperature (t_10; K), and air density (dn_10; kg/m3). Fields available monthly are: cloud forcing (cldf), precipitation (prec), and downward shortwave radiation (swdn; W/m2). The cloud forcing is a fraction between 0 and 1. It is not used directly in the sea ice physics, but to generate forcing fields such as downwelling longwave and shortwave radiation at the surface. In fully coupled runs the radiation is directly passed instead of cldf. The precipitation units can be set in the namelist. Precipitation is often just liquid precipitation that is converted to snow in cold enough temperatures, but the model can handle both liquid and solid precipitation. In fully coupled runs the atmospheric model provides the precipitation fields. In our test configurations the shortwave downward forcing is provided as a single value and then divided into 4 wavelength bands. In fully coupled runs, the bands are passed directly.
The gx1 grid is nominal one-degree resolution. Grid, kmt, and mask weight files are provided in the grid tar file. Initial conditions are also available.
JRA55 forcing (Tsujino et. al 2018) files are 8x daily data (every 3hr) by year with the following fields: X-ward wind (wndewd; m/s), Y-ward wind (wndnwd; m/s), Specific Humidity (spchmd; kg/kg), Air Temperature (airtmp; K), Total Precipitation (ttlpcp; kg/(m2*s) ), Downward Surface Longwave (dlwsfc; W/m2), and Downward Surface Shortwave (glbrad; W/m2). As a result, there is no need for monthly files or cloud fraction when using the JRA55 forcing. Five years (2005-2009) of forcing data are available. If you publish a paper using the JRA55 dataset please be sure to cite this paper.
Tsujino, H., S. Urakawa, H. Nakano, R.J. Small, W.M. Kim, S.G. Yeager, et al. (2018). JRA‐55 based surface dataset for driving ocean–sea‐ice models (JRA55‐do). Ocean Modelling. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2018.07.002
Monthly climatological nitrate and silicate concentration (mmol/m3) derived from the World Ocean Atlas and necessary for biogeochemical forcing.
National Centers for Environmental Information (2013). World Ocean Atlas Version 2. Natl. Ocn. and Atm. Admin. https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/woa13/
COREII (Large and Yeager 2009) of forcing data for five years (2005-2009) are available. Fields available 4x daily (every 6hr) at 10 meters above the surface for: Zonal Wind (u_10; m/s), Meridional Wind (v_10; m/s), 10m Specific Humidity (q_10; kg/kg), and 10m Temperature (t_10; K). The monthly cloud forcing (cldf) and precipitation (prec) climatological fields are also available. The cloud forcing is a fraction between 0 and 1. It is not used directly in the sea ice physics, but to generate forcing fields such as downwelling longwave and shortwave radiation at the surface. In fully coupled runs the radiation is directly passed instead of cldf. The precipitation units can be set in the namelist. Precipitation is often just liquid precipitation that is converted to snow in cold enough temperatures, but the model can handle both liquid and solid precipitation. In fully coupled runs the atmospheric model provides the precipitation fields.
Large, W.G. and S.G. Yeager (2009).The global climatology of an interannually varying air-sea flux data set. Climate Dynamics, 33, 341-364. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-008-0441-3
This forcing was derived from the CESM1 Large Ensemble piControl run (Kay et al. 2015 from years 402--1503. A monthly mean climatology is created for mixed-layer depth and q-flux forcing from the POP ocean component.
Kay, J. E., Deser, C., Phillips, A., Mai, A., Hannay, C., Strand, G., Arblaster, J., Bates, S., Danabasoglu, G., Edwards, J., Holland, M. Kushner, P., Lamarque, J.-F., Lawrence, D., Lindsay, K., Middleton, A., Munoz, E., Neale, R., Oleson, K., Polvani, L., and M. Vertenstein (2015), The Community Earth System Model (CESM) Large Ensemble Project: A Community Resource for Studying Climate Change in the Presence of Internal Climate Variability, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-13-00255.1, 96, 1333-1349
If more than 5 years of gx1 forcing data are required for your work, information and instructions about how users can generate 50 years of forcing data can also be found at ftp://ftp.cgd.ucar.edu/archive/Model-Data/CICE/gx1_50yr_scrip.tar.gz. These data will not be arranged in the directory structure described below and the user is responsible for arranging files appropriately. The Consortium recommends against using the stand-alone configuration for scientific studies. See the FAQ.
The tx3 grid is nominal one-degree resolution on a tripole grid. Grid and kmt file are provided in the grid tar file. A single initial condition file is provided.
JRA55 forcing (Tsujino et. al 2018) files are 8x daily data (every 3hr) by year with the following fields: X-ward wind (wndewd; m/s), Y-ward wind (wndnwd; m/s), Specific Humidity (spchmd; kg/kg), Air Temperature (airtmp; K), Total Precipitation (ttlpcp; kg/(m2*s) ), Downward Surface Longwave (dlwsfc; W/m2), and Downward Surface Shortwave (glbrad; W/m2). As a result, there is no need for monthly files or cloud fraction when using the JRA55 forcing. Five years (2005-2009) of forcing data are available. If you publish a paper using the JRA55 dataset please be sure to cite this paper.
Tsujino, H., S. Urakawa, H. Nakano, R.J. Small, W.M. Kim, S.G. Yeager, et al. (2018). JRA‐55 based surface dataset for driving ocean–sea‐ice models (JRA55‐do). Ocean Modelling. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2018.07.002
The file for generating 50 years of gx1 forcing data is available from an anonymous FTP. You can click the URL listed above or access the file from the command line using the following commands:
$ ftp ftp.cgd.ucar.edu
$ Name: [anonymous]
$ Password: [user's email address]
$ cd /archive/Model-Data/CICE/
Then use standard ftp commands to obtain the relevant files from these subdirectories.