Access Gridded Data

Gridded data are available for a range of variables in NetCDF and GeoTiff formats. The NetCDF datasets are arranged in annual blocks where each file contains all of the grids for the selected year and variable. The GeoTiff datasets are not arranged in blocks; each file contains a single grid for the selected day (or month in the case of monthly rainfall) and variable.

Please note SILO also provides point datasets. Temporal (point) data at individual grid locations can be downloaded using our web interface or web API.

SILO's gridded datasets are hosted on Amazon Web Services under the AWS Public Data Program.

How can I access the data?

Annual NetCDF files:

Year*

Variable*

Each annual NetCDF file (for daily variables) is approximately 410 MB in size. The annual NetCDF files for monthly rainfall are smaller (14 MB) because they only contain 12 monthly grids, instead of 365 or 366 daily grids.

Daily / Monthly GeoTiff files:

Variable*

Date*

To ensure you obtain the most recent version of the selected dataset, please clear your browser cache before downloading.

Gridded data are available for:

Mean sea level pressure: 1957 - current year
Evaporation - Class A pan: 1970 - current year
All other variables: 1889 - current year

How else can I access the data?

The gridded data are stored on Amazon S3. The NetCDF data are arranged in a directory structure of the form annual/<variable>/<year>.<variable>.nc where variable is the variable's short name. Similarly, the GeoTiff data are arranged in a directory structure of the form daily/<variable>/<year>/<year><month><day>.<variable>.tif (daily variables), and monthly/<variable>/<year>/<year><month>.<variable>.tif (monthly variables). The datasets can be accessed by the following methods:

Interactive browsing:
A complete list of the NetCDF datasets available can be obtained via URL:
https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/silo-open-data/Official/annual/index.html

A directory listing is not available for GeoTiff datasets.

Using the AWS command line interface:
For example, the 2005 data for monthly rainfall can be downloaded in NetCDF format as follows:
```
aws s3 cp s3://silo-open-data/Official/annual/monthly_rain/2005.monthly_rain.nc .
```
Alternatively, all monthly rainfall files can be downloaded in NetCDF format as follows:
```
aws s3 sync s3://silo-open-data/Official/annual/monthly_rain/ .
```
As another example, the daily maximum temperature dataset for 3 Jan 2018 can be downloaded in GeoTiff format as follows:
```
aws s3 cp s3://silo-open-data/Official/daily/max_temp/2018/20180103.max_temp.tif .
```

Direct access via URL:
Datasets can be downloaded via URL using a web browser, scripting APIs (such as netCDF4-python for Python) or command line tools such as curl or wget. The URL has the form:
```
https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/silo-open-data/Official/annual/<variable>/<year>.<variable>.nc
```
For example, the 2015 data for class A pan evaporation can be downloaded using curl as follows:
```
 curl "https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/silo-open-data/Official/annual/evap_pan/2015.evap_pan.nc" --remote-name
```