Weather Data Sources and Attribution

April 19, 2026

This document describes the sources of the data used within Visual Crossing Weather Data.

Weather Forecast Information

Visual Crossing combines multiple numerical weather prediction models, observational datasets, radar, satellite, reanalysis, and official alert feeds to produce global historical, current, and forecast weather data. Sources vary by geography, forecast horizon, weather element, and product availability.

Weather Forecast Sources

United States NOAA Models

National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) – high-resolution forecast guidance for the contiguous United States provided by NOAA.
Global Forecast System (GFS) – global numerical weather prediction model from NOAA, providing forecasts worldwide including wind, solar, soil moisture, wave, and agricultural products.
North American Mesoscale (NAM) – regional forecast model from NOAA focused on North America, including agricultural variables.
High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) – high-resolution (3 km) hourly-updated forecast model for the contiguous United States from NOAA, including sub-hourly output.
AI-GFS – an AI-based global weather forecast model trained on GFS data, providing fast global predictions.

European Models

European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) IFS – the flagship global forecast model from ECMWF, widely regarded as one of the leading global medium-range forecast systems.
ECMWF ENS – the ECMWF 51-member global ensemble forecast system, used to quantify forecast uncertainty and improve extended-range accuracy.
ECMWF AIFS – ECMWF’s AI-based global forecast model, providing fast and accurate medium-range predictions using machine learning.
ICON-EU – the regional European configuration of the ICON (Icosahedral Nonhydrostatic) weather model from the German Meteorological Office (Deutscher Wetterdienst, DWD), covering Europe at high resolution.
ICON-D2 – the high-resolution 2 km convection-permitting regional model from DWD covering Germany and neighboring areas.
Météo-France AROME – the high-resolution (1–1.5 km) convection-permitting regional forecast model from Météo-France, covering France and surrounding areas.
Météo-France ARPEGE – the global spectral forecast model from Météo-France, with enhanced resolution over Europe.

Canadian Models

Global Deterministic Prediction System (GDPS) – global forecast model from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).
Regional Deterministic Prediction System (RDPS) – regional forecast model from ECCC covering North America.
High Resolution Deterministic Prediction System (HRDPS) – 2.5 km high-resolution regional model from ECCC.

UK Met Office Models

UK Met Office Global Model – global numerical weather prediction model from the UK Met Office at approximately 10 km resolution.
UK Met Office UKV – the 2 km variable-resolution UK regional model from the UK Met Office, covering the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Near-Realtime Observation & Radar Data

Near-real-time observations, radar, and satellite-derived products are used to improve current conditions, precipitation analysis, cloud and solar estimates, and short-range forecast performance.

Radar & Precipitation Sources

Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS) – NOAA’s high-resolution (1 km, 2-minute) merged radar and multi-sensor precipitation analysis for the contiguous United States and Canada, including severe weather products.
DWD Radar (5-minute) – German Weather Service (Deutscher Wetterdienst, DWD) high-resolution 5-minute radar precipitation data covering Germany and neighboring countries.
UK Met Office Radar (15-minute) – UK Met Office composite radar precipitation analysis at 15-minute intervals.
Météo-France Radar (5-minute) – Météo-France composite radar precipitation data at 5-minute intervals.

Satellite Sources

GOES (10-minute) – NOAA GOES-East and GOES-West geostationary satellite imagery and derived products at 10-minute intervals, covering the Americas.
EUMETSAT MTG FCI (10-minute) – Meteosat Third Generation Flexible Combined Imager from EUMETSAT at 10-minute intervals, covering Europe and Africa.
Solar Satellite – satellite-derived solar irradiance data used to improve surface solar radiation estimates.

Weather Alerts and Warnings

Visual Crossing aggregates official alert and warning feeds and normalizes them into a common alert model for timeline and map output.

Alert/Warning Sources

U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) – Active alerts from weather.gov.
MeteoAlarm – European national meteorological warning feeds (including France and other EUMETNET members).
Local and Regional CAP geocode systems used for matching alert polygons/zones to locations, including UGC/SAME (U.S.) and NUTS/EMMA/AEMET geocodes (Europe) and other global providers.

Historical Weather Data

The following sources are used to create our global historical weather data database. These providers supply raw observation data at the minute, sub-hourly, hourly, or daily level. Most observations are actual timed observations; daily-level data are summaries of the day.

Hourly observations include weather stations such as airports and other staffed or automated local stations. Sub-hourly data includes personal weather stations. Historical observations are interpolated based on weather station proximity to the requested location. For more information see How We Process the Historical Weather Data.

Historical Weather Data Sources

Observation Databases

Integrated Surface Database (ISD) – NOAA’s global database of sub-hourly and hourly weather station observations from airports and surface stations worldwide.
Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System (MADIS) – global database of sub-hourly and hourly weather station observations from multiple networks, including: METAR data (ASOS, AWOS, and non-automated reports), Integrated Mesonet data, maritime data from ships and buoys, and snow data including SNOw TELemetry (SNOTEL).
Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) – German weather service database of sub-hourly and hourly weather station observations across Germany and Central Europe.
Global Historical Climate Network Daily (GHCN-D) – NOAA’s global database of daily summaries of weather station observations spanning more than 100,000 stations worldwide.
Global Historical Climate Network Hourly (GHCNh) – NOAA’s global database of quality-controlled hourly weather station observations, providing sub-daily resolution across thousands of stations worldwide.

Reanalysis Datasets

ECMWF Reanalysis v5 (ERA5) – global reanalysis data from ECMWF created by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), spanning from 1940 to near-present at hourly resolution. Visual Crossing uses multiple ERA5 product streams including core meteorological variables, energy and solar radiation fields, soil moisture and temperature, and ocean wave parameters.
Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2) – reanalysis data from NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO), providing global coverage from 1980 to near-present.
GLORYS12 – the Copernicus Marine Service global ocean reanalysis at 1/12° resolution, used to provide historical ocean current, wave, and sea-state data.

Air Quality & Atmospheric Composition

Visual Crossing incorporates air quality and atmospheric composition data from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service to provide pollution, pollen, and air quality index information.

Air Quality Sources

Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) – Global – global air quality forecast and reanalysis data from ECMWF’s CAMS service, covering ozone, particulates (PM2.5, PM10), nitrogen dioxide, and other pollutants.
Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) – European Air Quality & Pollen – high-resolution European air quality ensemble forecast and pollen forecast from CAMS, combining multiple European air quality models.
National Digital Guidance Database Air Quality (NDGD AQ) – NOAA’s gridded air quality guidance for the United States.

Elevation Data

Copernicus Digital Elevation Model (DEM) – global elevation data from the Copernicus Land Service used to improve temperature lapse-rate corrections for high-altitude and complex terrain locations.

Address Lookup and Geocoding

Address geocoding is the process of converting an address or place name into exact geographical coordinates (latitude and longitude).

AWS Geocoding (Amazon Location Service) – global geocoding and reverse geocoding services powered by Amazon Location Service.