ARR Data Hub
Gov-Public
The official portal for Australian Rainfall & Runoff design inputs — losses, temporal patterns and preburst.
Data, Monitoring & ForecastingActiveIDF CurvesDesign Storms
MERRA-2
ActiveNASA's satellite-era atmospheric reanalysis — hourly global fields from 1980, the default alternative to ERA5.
by NASA GMAO / GES DISC
- Pricing
- Gov-Public
- License
- US Government (public domain)
- Commercial use
- Permitted
- Ecosystem
- Python, xarray, NetCDF
- Platform
- Windows, macOS, Linux
About MERRA-2
MERRA-2, produced by NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office, is a global atmospheric reanalysis at roughly 0.5°×0.625° resolution and hourly timestep, covering 1980 to near-present, and distributed through GES DISC. It assimilates modern satellite observation types (aerosols, GPS radio occultation) that its predecessor MERRA lacked.
It sits alongside ERA5 as the other reanalysis engineers reach for — coarser in resolution but independent in modelling lineage, which makes it a useful cross-check when a single reanalysis product's biases are a concern.
Where it fits in the workflow
TerrainCatchmentRainfallRunoffRoutingHydraulicsMappingReporting
Alternatives to MERRA-2
Other data, monitoring & forecasting tools covering similar workflow stages.
ASCAT Soil Moisture (H SAF)
Gov-Public
Near-real-time scatterometer soil moisture from EUMETSAT — hours of latency, useful for operational monitoring.
Data, Monitoring & ForecastingActiveSatellite Soil Moisture DataStreamflow Forecasting
CHIRPS
Free
Gauge-blended satellite rainfall at 0.05°, daily, since 1981 — the standard for drainage work in data-sparse regions.
Data, Monitoring & ForecastingActiveSatellite Precipitation DataRainfall Data
Caravan
Open Source
The open global large-sample hydrology dataset — thousands of catchments with forcing, attributes and streamflow.
Data, Monitoring & ForecastingActiveStreamflow DataRainfall Data
Delft-FEWS
Free
Deltares' operational forecasting platform — the shell running national flood-forecast centres worldwide.
Data, Monitoring & ForecastingActiveStreamflow ForecastingFlood Mapping
ERA5 / ERA5-Land
Free
ECMWF's hourly global reanalysis — the default gap-free climate forcing record for ungauged catchments worldwide.
Data, Monitoring & ForecastingActiveClimate Reanalysis DataRainfall Data