This dataset contains products from the NCEP/DOE Reanalysis II (R2) Project. The resolution of the R2 model is the same as NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis (R1) proejct, T62 (209 km) with 28 vertical sigma levels. The output fields are saved 4 times a day as in R1. The main objective of the R2 project is to correct known errors in the R1 project and update the parameterizations of the physical processes. Improvements are seen in surface flux fields, hydrological budget, short wave radiation flux, etc. There are also drawbacks found in the outgoing longwave radiation over tropical warm pool and upper-level tropical moisture. R2 plans to reanalyze the data starting from 1979 and going forward only.

The main R2 products archived at NCAR consitute of 6 subgroups: pressure level analysis (pgb-anl), sigma level analysis (sgb-anl), flux term analysis (flx-ft00), diagnostic analysis (dg3-ft00) and 6-hour forecasts of flux term (flx-ft06) and diagnostic (dg3-ft06) terms. All data files are in GRIB format and archived by month.

This dataset is updated once a month. The most commonly used fields are also available at NCEP's NOMAD Server (http://nomad3.ncep.noaa.gov/ncep_data/index.html). Climate Diagnostic Center (CDC) of NOAA has the same data in netCDF format at CDC Reanalysis 2.