Setting Up Your Dataset¶
climpred
relies on a consistent naming system for xarray
dimensions. This allows things to run more easily under-the-hood.
Prediction ensembles are expected at the minimum to contain dimensions init
and lead
. init
is the initialization dimension, that relays the time steps at which the ensemble was initialized. lead
is the lead time of the forecasts from initialization. Another crucial dimension is member
, which holds the various ensemble members. Any additional dimensions will be passed through climpred
without issue: these could be things like lat
, lon
, depth
, etc.
Control runs, references, and observational products are expected to contain the time
dimension at the minimum. For best use of climpred
, their time
dimension should cover the full length of init
from the accompanying prediction ensemble, if possible. These products can also include additional dimensions, such as lat
, lon
, depth
, etc.
See the below table for a summary of dimensions used in climpred
, and data types that climpred
supports for them.
short_name | types | long_name |
lead |
int |
lead timestep after initialization [init ] |
init |
int |
initialization: start date of experiment |
member |
int , str |
ensemble member |