The Cycles global simulation database version 4.0 provides crop lookup tables, Cycles soil files, and Cycles weather files (1979 to present in CONUS, 2000 to present globally). This version supports the simulations of major crops in any Level-3 (e.g., county level) administrative region in the world. The crops that can be simulated include bean, cassava, lentil, maize, millet, potato, rice, sorghum, soybean, sweet potato, and wheat. Each crop is classified into two categories based on irrigation types: rainfed and irrigated. All versions prior to v2.0 were developed by Dr. Lorne Leonard.
- Re-organized the directory structure of the database, and renamed files to follow a consistent naming convention.
- Re-processed crop lookup tables and soil files, following the publication of CROPGRIDS v1.08 and ESA/CCI Land Cover Maps v2.1.1.
- Added
ROCKandpHcolumns to soil files. - Added a "generic" version of lookup tables and soil files for the CONUS region, corresponding to rainfed and irrigated cropland in general without specifying crop types, to support simulations that do not require crop-specific information.
- Added 2025 data to weather files.
- Compatible with Cycles v1.5.3+.
- Added 2024 data to weather files.
- Compatible with Cycles v1.4.1+.
- Re-processed NLDAS-2 and gridMET weather files, following the re-processing of NLDAS-2 forcing.
- Replaced soil organic matter (
ORGANIC) in the soil files following the release of Cycles v1.4.1. - Compatible with Cycles v1.4.1+.
- Corrected screening heights of weather files.
- Added gridMET as an option for weather forcing for CONUS region.
- Renamed crop lookup files due to the addition of weather forcing options.
- Added 2023 data to weather files.
- Added a utility to find weather files for given locations.
- Compatible with Cycles v1.0.0 -- v1.3.0.
- Fixed a weather file precipitation precision bug, which only rounded down precipitation amount but never rounded up.
- Added a Slurm script for transition to Slurm systems.
- Removed version numbers in crop look-up and soil directories.
- Compatible with Cycles v1.0.0 -- v1.3.0.
- Missing values in SoilGrids data were filled with values from adjacent grids.
- A lower bound of 1% was added for minimum relative humidity to address negative specific humidity in GLDAS forcing.
- Fixed a bug that some GLDAS water grids were not correctly filtered out.
- Used the new version of GLDAS elevation file.
- Compatible with Cycles v1.0.0 -- v1.3.0.
- GAEZ+_2015 Crop Harvest Area
- GAEZ+_2015 Crop Production
- CROPGRIDS v1.08
- GADM v4.1
- ESA/CCI Land Cover Maps v2.1.1
- SoilGrids aggregated 5000-m
- Global Hydrologic Soil Groups (HYSOGs250m) for Curve Number-Based Runoff Modeling
- Curve number tables
- GMTED2010 1-km median slope
- GLDAS
- NLDAS
- gridMET
The crop_lut directory contains crop lookup tables that include all 3rd-level (or above) administrative regions where major crops are harvested, along with the names of corresponding weather files and soil files for the regions.
The lookup tables are provided in csv format, and are named using the convention
[crop name]_[management type]_[range]_lut_[file version].csv.
For example, maize_irrigated_global_lookup_4.0.csv can be interpreted as follows:
- [crop name] = maize
- [irrigation type] = irrigated
- [range] = global
- [File version] = 4.0
Each lookup table file is structured as:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| GID | Unique id representing Administrative region of the world |
| NAME_0 | Country |
| NAME_1 | Level 1 sub-division (e.g., state) |
| NAME_2 | Level 2 sub-division (e.g., county) |
| region_area_km2 | Region area in km2 |
| crop_area_ha | Crop area in hectares |
| harvested_area_ha | Harvested area in hectares |
| weather | Weather file name |
| soil | Soil file name |
| reference_latitude | Latitude of sampling point for weather and soil files (degree) |
| reference_longitude | Longitude of sampling point for weather and soil files (degree) |
Global look-up tables map regions to GLDAS grids, and CONUS look-up tables match them to NLDAS and gridMET grids.
Soil file archives provide global soil files that support the simulations of major crops, and can be found in the soil directory.
These files are zipped and follow the naming convention [crop name]_[management type]_global_soil_[file version].7z.
The soil files contain comments indicating the hydrologic soil group to which the soil belongs. The curve number for row crops with straight row treatment is used, assuming good drainage. However, if the cover type, treatment, or drainage is different, please refer to the table below to find the appropriate curve numbers.
| Cover type | Treatment | Hydrologic condition | Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fallow | Bare soil | 77 | 86 | 91 | 94 | |
| Fallow | CR | Poor | 76 | 85 | 90 | 93 |
| Fallow | CR | Good | 74 | 83 | 88 | 90 |
| Row crops | SR | Poor | 72 | 81 | 88 | 91 |
| Row crops | SR | Good | 67 | 78 | 85 | 89 |
| Row crops | SR + CR | Poor | 71 | 80 | 87 | 90 |
| Row crops | SR + CR | Good | 64 | 75 | 82 | 85 |
| Row crops | C | Poor | 70 | 79 | 84 | 88 |
| Row crops | C | Good | 65 | 75 | 82 | 86 |
| Row crops | C + CR | Poor | 69 | 78 | 83 | 87 |
| Row crops | C + CR | Good | 64 | 74 | 81 | 85 |
| Row crops | C & T | Poor | 66 | 74 | 80 | 82 |
| Row crops | C & T | Good | 62 | 71 | 78 | 81 |
| Row crops | C & T + CR | Poor | 65 | 73 | 79 | 81 |
| Row crops | C & T + CR | Good | 61 | 70 | 77 | 80 |
| Small grain | SR | Poor | 65 | 76 | 84 | 88 |
| Small grain | SR | Good | 63 | 75 | 83 | 87 |
| Small grain | SR + CR | Poor | 64 | 75 | 83 | 86 |
| Small grain | SR + CR | Good | 60 | 72 | 80 | 84 |
| Small grain | C | Poor | 63 | 74 | 82 | 85 |
| Small grain | C | Good | 61 | 73 | 81 | 84 |
| Small grain | C + CR | Poor | 62 | 73 | 81 | 84 |
| Small grain | C + CR | Good | 60 | 72 | 80 | 83 |
| Small grain | C & T | Poor | 61 | 72 | 79 | 82 |
| Small grain | C & T | Good | 59 | 70 | 78 | 81 |
| Small grain | C & T + CR | Poor | 60 | 71 | 78 | 81 |
| Small grain | C & T + CR | Good | 58 | 69 | 77 | 80 |
| Close-seeded or broadcast legumes or rotation meadow | SR | Poor | 66 | 77 | 85 | 89 |
| Close-seeded or broadcast legumes or rotation meadow | SR | Good | 58 | 72 | 81 | 85 |
| Close-seeded or broadcast legumes or rotation meadow | C | Poor | 64 | 75 | 83 | 85 |
| Close-seeded or broadcast legumes or rotation meadow | C | Good | 55 | 69 | 78 | 83 |
| Close-seeded or broadcast legumes or rotation meadow | C & T | Poor | 63 | 73 | 80 | 83 |
| Close-seeded or broadcast legumes or rotation meadow | C & T | Good | 51 | 67 | 76 | 80 |
Note:
CR: Crop residue cover
SR: Straight row
C: Contoured
T: Terraced
Weather file archives are stored in the weather directory.
The NLDAS_CONUS_1979-2025_4.0.7z archive contains 52,476 Cycles weather files for the CONUS region, generated from the primary forcing data for Phase 2 of the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS-2).
The gridMET_1979-2025_4.0.7z archive contains all 20,321 Cycles weather files that appear in the CONUS look-up tables, generated from the gridMET dataset.
The GLDAS_2000-2025_3.6.7z archive contains all 59,162 Cycles weather files that appear in the global look-up tables, generated from the primary forcing data for the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS).
The weather files follow the naming convention [reanalysis]_[lat][N or S]_[lon][E or W].weather, where [reanalysis] can be GLDAS, NLDAS or girdMET, and [lat] and [lon] refer to the latitude and longitude of the corresponding grids.