Appendix B — Timing of Data Availability

Target data and NOAA driver data are being regularly downloaded, processed, and published to the server for use in the Challenge. Below are are the approximate timing for when different data products are available for download.

NOAA Stage 1 (3-6 hr intervals)

Updated hourly as data become available on Amazon Web Services For a given forecast that starts at 0 hour UTC (cycle = 0), the full 35-day horizon for all ensembles is available at ~ 4 am UTC on the following date. Stage 1 are available as:

NOAA Stage 2 (1 hour intervals)

Updated daily once the full 35-day horizon for all ensembles has been downloaded in Stage 1. For a given forecast start date, the full 35-day horizon for all ensembles is available at ~ 5 am UTC on the following date. Stage 2 are available as:

NOAA Stage 3 (1 hour intervals)

Updated daily. For a given forecast start date, Stage 3 is updated to the current at ~ 11 am UTC each day. Stage 3 are available as:

Terrestrial targets

Timing: updated daily between 9 and 10 am UTC.
Latency: New data each day is from ~5-day prior (some sites are have a few more day latency)

Phenology targets

Timing: The phenology targets are at 2 pm UTC.
Latency: New data each day is from 1-day prior

Aquatics targets

Timing: Updated daily between 7 and 8 am UTC.
Latency: New data each day is from ~2-days prior

Tick targets

Timing: Appears monthly around the 15th. We are updating the targets file on Sundays at 11 am UTC
Latency: New data is from ~300 days prior

Beetles targets

Timing: Appears monthly around the 15th. We are updating the targets file on Sundays at 10 am UTC
Latency: New data is from ~60 days prior

Scored forecasts

Timing: Forecast scores are updated daily at 11 am UTC
Latency: New scores are for 1-day prior

Forecasting submission processing

Timing: Submitted forecasts are processed every 2 hours.