CEMS-Flood (EFAS/GloFAS) datasets are openly available and can be accessed in various ways (CDS, MARS, FTP and Web Services, see sub pages). The ways to access and the type of files that are accessible depend on EFAS/GloFAS users' credentials.

The following pages provide details on how to access the data through each channel along with information on web services provided by CEMS-Flood. 

EFAS

EFAS has a dedicated data service enabling users (public or EFAS registered users) to access hydrological simulation time series produced by the system. Five types of hydrological time series datasets are available: historical hydrological simulations, medium- and seasonal-range forecasts and reforecasts for both medium- and seasonal-range. Detailed information on the available datasets and accessible variables can be found under the heading EFAS Available Data.

Access to EFAS data depends on their release date:

  • Near real-time data. This is a restricted service only available to registered authorised EFAS users, providing access to the real-time medium-range forecasts data within 30 days of their release date (when they were issued, i.e. the run date of the forecasts needs to be maximum 30 days old). Access is possible through a dedicated password-protected ftp service. For more information on the access condition to EFAS datsa is available on this page: efas-conditions-access
  • Archived data. This is a service open to all, conditional to license conditions acceptance, providing access to all medium-range forecast data after 30 days of their release date and all other EFAS data types without restrictions (historical simulations, seasonal forecasts and the reforecasts). Access is possible through the Copernicus Climate Data Store (CDS) and ECMWF's Meteorological Archival and Retrieval System (MARS).

GloFAS

GloFAS has a dedicated data service enabling users to access freely any hydrological simulation time series over the world produced by the system. Five types of hydrological time series datasets are available: hydrological reanalysis, real-time 30-day and seasonal forecasts and reforecasts for both 30-day and seasonal ranges.

Access to GloFAS Data is subject to the GloFAS Terms of Service.


EFAS and GloFAS hydrological time series data are provided as compressed gridded time series either as grib files (a compressing format used at ECMWF to store effectively large amounts of gridded data) or as NetCDF files. Currently, access to NetCDF files is only possible directly from CDS. Converter software can be used to transform grib files into netCDF files. More information can be found on the working with CEMS-Flood data pages.