Trouble accessing NLDAS hourly Primary Forcing Data

[janettelin5]

I was previously able to download hourly NLDAS data for a specific variable (downward shortwave radiation) from the Hydrology Data Rods servers, using a handy R function to specify the time range, lat and long coordinates, and variable name (previous post about it here: viewtopic.php?p=22937#p22937). Unfortunately the Data Rods service was discontinued not long after, and I am back in the position of trying to download new subsets of this data.

I have been trying to download these subsets directly from GES DISC server (https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datasets/NLDAS_FORA0125_H_2.0/summary?keywords=NLDAS). I click on Data Access, select Transform Data, select CSV as my output file format, and enter in my date range, lat/long coordinates, and SWDown variable name. However, I then get the error "the requested combination of operations: variable subsetting and area averaging on C2033151148-GES_DISC is unsupported. The following services may have matched if additional operations were requested: giovanni-averaging-service requires spatialSubset." When I then use a small bounding box instead of a point coordinate, I get the error "WorkItem failed: giovanni-averaging-adapter:v1.1.12: Your request failed and we are unfortunately unable to automatically determine why."

What is the simplest way I can download this dataset for a point location? Most ideally, is there another R function I can use, either with GES DISC or another server, to automatically read the subsetted NLDAS data directly into R?

Thank you in advance!

[GES DISC - afisher]

You can use the Hydrology time series tool to quickly get hourly SWDown data from the NLDAS primary forcing dataset. https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/information/tools?title=Hydrology%20Time%20Series. From here, you can select a variable subset, location, and time and download a csv file. In the "About tab" you can find information on how to use the Giovanni API to programmatically get the subsetted data in code.

[GES DISC - afisher]

For more information about the upcoming changes to GES DISC data access and services please refer to this document: https://github.com/nasa/gesdisc-tutorials/blob/main/user-guidance/GES_DISC_Migration_to_Earthdata_Website_and_Earthdata_Cloud.md. The "Updates to Giovanni Service" section might be more relevant to your use case.