GRIB2 - CODE TABLE 4.5

FIXED SURFACE TYPES AND UNITS

In Section 4, Octets 23 and 29

Revised 04/08/2013
Red text depicts changes made since 02/14/2012


Code Figure Meaning
0
 Reserved
1
 Ground or Water Surface
2
 Cloud Base Level
3
 Level of Cloud Tops
4
 Level of 0o C Isotherm
5
 Level of Adiabatic Condensation Lifted from the Surface
6
 Maximum Wind Level
7
 Tropopause
8
 Nominal Top of the Atmosphere
9
 Sea Bottom
10 Entire Atmosphere
11 Cumulonimbus Base (CB) m
12 Cumulonimbus Top (CT) m
13-19
 Reserved
20
 Isothermal Level
 K
21-99
 Reserved
100
 Isobaric Surface
 Pa
101
 Mean Sea Level
102
 Specific Altitude Above Mean Sea Level
 m
103
 Specified Height Level Above Ground
 m
104
 Sigma Level
105
 Hybrid Level
106
 Depth Below Land Surface
 m
107
 Isentropic (theta) Level
 K
108
 Level at Specified Pressure Difference from Ground to Level
 Pa
109
 Potential Vorticity Surface
 K m2 kg-1 s-1
110
 Reserved
111
 Eta Level
112 Reserved
113 Logarithmic Hybrid Level
114 Snow Level Numeric
115-116 Reserved
117
 Mixed Layer Depth
 m
118 Hybrid Height Level
119 Hybrid Pressure Level
120-149 Reserved
150 Generalized Vertical Height Coordinate (see Note 5)
151-159 Reserved
160
 Depth Below Sea Level
 m
161 Depth Below Water Surface m
162 Lake or River Bottom
163 Bottom Of Sediment Layer
164 Bottom Of Thermally Active Sediment Layer
165 Bottom Of Sediment Layer Penetrated By Thermal Wave
166 Maxing Layer
167-191
 Reserved
192-254
 Reserved for Local Use
200
 Entire atmosphere (considered as a single layer)
201
 Entire ocean (considered as a single layer)
204
 Highest tropospheric freezing level
206
 Grid scale cloud bottom level
207
 Grid scale cloud top level
209
 Boundary layer cloud bottom level
210
 Boundary layer cloud top level
211
 Boundary layer cloud layer
212
 Low cloud bottom level
213
 Low cloud top level
214
 Low cloud layer
215
 Cloud ceiling
220 Planetary Boundary Layer
221 Layer Between Two Hybrid Levels
222
 Middle cloud bottom level
223
 Middle cloud top level
224
 Middle cloud layer
232
 High cloud bottom level
233
 High cloud top level
234
 High cloud layer
235
 Ocean Isotherm Level (1/10 ° C)
236
 Layer between two depths below ocean surface

237
 Bottom of Ocean Mixed Layer (m)
238
 Bottom of Ocean Isothermal Layer (m)
239
 Layer Ocean Surface and 26C Ocean Isothermal Level
240
 Ocean Mixed Layer
241
 Ordered Sequence of Data
242
 Convective cloud bottom level
243
 Convective cloud top level
244
 Convective cloud layer
245
 Lowest level of the wet bulb zero
246
 Maximum equivalent potential temperature level
247
 Equilibrium level
248
 Shallow convective cloud bottom level
249
 Shallow convective cloud top level
251
 Deep convective cloud bottom level
252
 Deep convective cloud top level
253
 Lowest bottom level of supercooled liquid water layer
254
 Highest top level of supercooled liquid water layer
255 Missing


Notes:

(1).  The Eta vertical coordinate system involves normalizing the pressure at some point on a specific level by the mean sea level pressure at that point.
(2).  Hybrid height level (Code figure 118) can be defined as:
z(k)=A(k)+B(k)* orog
(k=1,..., NLevels; orog=orography; z(k)=height in meters at level(k)
(3).  Hybrid pressure level, for which code figure 119 shall be used insteaf of 105, can be defined as:
p(k)=A(k) + B(k) * sp
(k=1,...,NLevels, sp=surface pressure; p(k)=pressure at level (k)
(4).  Ice internal pressure or stress (Pa m) is the integrated pressure across the vertical thickness of a layer of ice. It is produced when concentrated ice reacts to external foreces such as wind and ocean currents
(5).  The definition of a generalized vertical height coordinate implies the absence of coordinate values in section 4 but the presence of an external 3D-GRIB message that specifies the height of every model grid point in meters (see Notes for section 4), i.e., this GRIB message will contain the field with discipline = 0, category = 3, parameterm = 6 (Geometric height).


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