Developed by Melanie
Wetzel
June 1997
Another excellent list of data sources is provided by Unidata.
The datasets are generally presented as ASCII text or HDF data format, and often also include images in GIF or other formats. The use of the data is often facilitated by included software, but may require software to be written by the user to really extract the information desired.
| Name | Source | Cost | Coverage Geo/Time |
Data Contents | Other |
| Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCPP) | World Data Center-A in NCDC, Asheville, NC. | Cost of the media | 2.5° x 2.5° lat/long grid July1987- Dec. 1994 |
Combined global, monthly precipitation estimates (19 product types and error estimates) | Satellite microwave and infrared data as well as precip. guage data |
| SAMSON (Solar and Meteorological Surface Observational Network) | National Climatic Data Center | 3 disks, $120 each or $360 for the set | 237 NWS Stations in Eastern, Central, and Western U.S., including Guam and Puerto Rico; 1961-1990 | Hourly solar radiation (extraterrestrial horizontal and direct normal radiation; global, diffuse, and direct normal radiation) + selected met. elements (total and opaque sky cover, T.,Td, RH, press., wnd dir & spd, vis., ceiling height, present weather, precip. water, aerosol optical depth, snow depth, days since last snowfall, and hourly precipitation | Joint NCDC and NREL product, available for DOS only |
| Hourly Modeled Sounding Data. | National Climatic Data Center | $480 for12 volume CD-ROM set. (Only sold as sets.) | U.S., 1990 | Penn State's MM4 modeled gridpoint sounding data; (wnd,T, dwpt depress., and geopot heightfor 8 standard and 15 variable levels are included in the NWS TTAA, TTBB format). | Requires 544K of RAM, DOS only. |
| Meteosat Images | J. Le Ber, Meteosat Data Service, European Space Agency, Robert Bosch Str. 5, D6100 DARMSTADT GERMANY | price on request | 1986 to 1991 | One full-disk IR image/day (usu. 12h00 UTC), one VIS image on day 1 of each mo. (at the same time as the IR image), one WV image on day 1 of each mo. of 1991 (at same time as IR and VIS images). Images of snow storm over US East coast on 12 &13 March 1993 (Meteosat-3; 75° E). Images of Kuwait during the Gulf war. Full-disk, March 1993 Meteosat-3 images (75° E). | |
| Historical Soviet Daily Snow Depth CD-ROM | NSIDC User Services, National Snow and Ice Data Center, CIRES - Campus Box 449, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0449. 303/492-6199, FAX 303/492-2468, email: nsidc@kryos.colorado.edu, Omnet: NSIDC. | $50 | Obs. from 284 WMO stations in Former Soviet Union. primarily mid lats., from 20°-180° W long. at alt. of 15-2100m. 1881-1985 | Daily data, NSDC-generated monthly means. | Has ASCII data files, extraction software, and data documentation. Data source is State Hydrometeorological Service, Obninsk, Russia. Data provided to NSIDC via Bilateral US-USSR WG-8 Exchange. Production of disc funded by the NOAA ESDIM Initiative through National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC). |
