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Finding ACCESS data

There are two main data catalogues to find ACCESS model data, depending on what you’re trying to do.

Which catalogue should you use?

  • I’m looking for a published, citable ACCESS-related dataset → Use the NCI Data Catalogue
  • I want to discover what ACCESS data exists (e.g. by variable, frequency, or resolution), or find data that may not yet be published → Use the ACCESS-NRI Data Catalogue

Both catalogues are open to browse. Access to the data files themselves will usually require an NCI account and NCI project membership, with a few exceptions noted below.

NCI Data Catalogue

The NCI Data Catalogue is a web-based catalogue that anyone can access through a browser. It is the authoritative source for published and curated ACCESS datasets hosted at the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI).

The catalogue allows you to search and browse at the dataset level, including: - dataset titles and descriptions - model, experiment, and project information - publication status and citation details - links to documentation and data locations at NCI

Best for: finding known, published ACCESS datasets
Without an NCI account: browse the catalogue and view all high-level dataset metadata
With an NCI account: access the data files themselves
More information: See the NCI Data Catalogue User Guide for guidance on data access, project membership, and storage systems

Note: The NCI Data Catalogue focuses on dataset-level metadata, rather than searching within the contents of the data (such as individual variable names).

ACCESS-NRI Data Catalogue

The ACCESS-NRI Data Catalogue supports discovery of ACCESS model and other related datasets across a wide range of model configurations and experiments, including datasets that may not yet be formally published.

Unlike the NCI Data Catalogue, the ACCESS-NRI Catalogue enables searching based on metadata describing the contents of the data itself, including:

  • variable names
  • temporal frequency of output
  • realms
  • model components, configurations, and experiments

The ACCESS-NRI Catalogue is accessible via a Python API (The ACCESS-NRI Intake Catalog), allowing users to query and filter metadata. An interactive, web-based version of the catalogue is currently in development (The ACCESS-NRI Interactive Data Catalog).

Note that the ACCESS-NRI catalogue includes the ACCESS-related datasets that are in the NCI Data Catalogue.

Best for: exploring what ACCESS data exists and discovering datasets based on their metadata attributes, loading an using data
Without an NCI account: catalogue is currently not accessible
With an NCI account: required to access the catalogue and datasets within the catalogue
More information: See the ACCESS-NRI Data catalogue documentation