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 |
| Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) Global Data Sets | NASA | Free | Global; Nov. 1984 to Feb. 1990. | Monthly scanner data and color images from scanning radiometers on the 3 ERBE satellites. Text data are averaged values of clear-sky and all-sky shortwave radiation, longwave radiation, albedo, net radiation, longwave cloud forcing, shortwave cloud forcing, and net cloud forcing. | |
| Surface Radiation Budget (SRB) Global Datasets | Langley DAAC User Services, MS 157B, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, 23681-0001. (804)864-8656, userserv@eosdis.larc.nasa.gov | Unknown | Global; March 1985 through Dec. 1988 | Version 1.1 shortwave products produced by World Climate Research Programme's (WCRP) SRB Satellite Data Analysis Center (SDAC). Pinker and Staylor algorithms are applied to ISCCPand ERBE results to estimate surface downward and net irradiances, surface albedo, downward direct/diffuse ratio, surface cloud forcing, and daylight cloud fraction. Other radiation, cloud, meteorological and diagnostic parameters are provided to aid the user in understanding variations in the SRB parameters. | Works with PCs, Macs, and UNIX systems with ISO-9660 CD-ROM driver support. Read and display software for PCs and Macs available on request. |
| SAM II Aerosol Data | Langley DAAC User Services, MS 157B, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, 23681-0001. (804)864-8656, userserv@eosdis.larc.nasa.gov | Free | Arctic and Antarctic stratosphere; Oct. 1978- Jan. 1993 | Solar irradiance attenuated by aerosol particles. Contains a stratospheric aerosol database for the polar regions based on measurments and mappings of vertical profiles of the atmospheric extinction due to aerosols | Database allows for studies of aerosol changes due to seasonal and short-term meteorological variations, atmospheric chemistry, cloud microphysics, and volcanic activity and other perturbations. |
| Stratospheric Ozone | Lenticular Press, P.O. Box 10413, College Station, TX 77842-0413. 409/693-0622, 409/693-0729 fax, sales@lenticular.com. | $49.95 | Entire 14.5-year record of Nimbus-7 TOMS | Stratospheric ozone measurements; global and hemispheric daily, monthly, and climatological maps, and numerical data | Commercial product that contains over 16,000 maps and 500 MB of data. |
| GEDEX (Greenhouse Effect Detection Experiment) | NCDS/Goddard Distributed Active Archive Center, Code 935, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771. 301/286-3209, email NCDSUSO@NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV | Unknown | Most global and monthly; spatial res. varies from zonal to 2.5° grids; >100 y of surf. sta. data; ~12 y of sat. data, . | Surface, upper air, and/or satellite-derived measurements of temperature, solar irradiance, clouds, greenhouse gases, fluxes, albedo, aerosols, ozone, and water vapor, along with Southern Oscillation Indices and Quasi-Biennial Oscillation statistics. | A more complete description of these discs may be obtained from the ncardata.ucar.edu FTP site, in the file catalogs/nondss/gedex |
| DMSP F8 Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) Brightness Temperature Grids | 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 | On request | Daily. North and south polar regions (areas where sea ice occurs), on polar stereographic grids, 9 July 1987 - 31 Dec. 1991. | Gridded brightness temperature (Tb) on polar stereographic grids, | 18 CD-ROMs, each with ~3 mo. of data. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F8 platform carried this first functional SSM/I,a 7-channel, 4-frequency, linearly polarized, passive microwave radiometric system; channels are 85.5 GHz Vertical/Horizontal, 37.0 GHz Vertical/Horizontal, 22.2 GHz Vertical, 19.3 GHz Vertical/Horizontal. Fortran program provided on diskette to extract single channel from inter-leaved storage format. Images can be displayed using IDL or other Unix or PC software. |
| DMSP F11 Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) Brightness Temperature Grids | 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 | On request | Daily. North and south polar regions (areas where sea ice occurs), on polar stereographic grids, 3 Dec. 1991 - present. | Gridded brightness temperature (Tb) on polar stereographic grids, | CD-ROMs, each have ~3 mo. of single-channel data in HDF. Software to handle HDF available via ftp from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu; help available from NCSA at helphdf@ncsa.uiuc.edu. or use commercial packages such as IDL. The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F11 platform carries this SSM/I instrument, a 7-channel, 4-frequency, linearly polarized, passive microwave radiometric system; channels are 85.5 GHz Vertical/Horizontal, 37.0 GHz Vertical/Horizontal, 22.2 GHz Vertical, 19.3 GHz Vertical/Horizontal. Info on latest available data available on request. |
| DMSP F8 Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) Sea Ice Concentration Grids | 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 | On request | Daily, first-year, multi-year, and total;. north and south polar regions on polar stereographic grids; 9 July 1987 - 31 Dec. 1991. | Two sets of ice concentration (25 x 25 km polar stereographic) grids, one using NASA Team algorithm; other usingJ.C. Comiso algorithm. Orbital antenna temperatures are processed to gridded brightness temperatures and then used to derive gridded ice concentrations. | 2 CD-ROMs (N and S); data in HDF. Software to handle HDF available via ftp from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu; help available from NCSA at helphdf@ncsa.uiuc.edu. or use commercial packages such as IDL. The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F11 platform carries this SSM/I instrument, a 7-channel, 4-frequency, linearly polarized, passive microwave radiometric system; channels are 85.5 GHz Vertical/Horizontal, 37.0 GHz Vertical/Horizontal, 22.2 GHz Vertical, 19.3 GHz Vertical/Horizontal. Info on latest available data available on request. |
| Nimbus-7 Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) Polar Radiances and Arctic and Antarctic Sea Ice Concentrations | 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 | On request | 6.60, 10.69, 18.00, 21.00 and 37.00 GHz in an alternate-day operating pattern; 10/78 - 8/87 | Gridded brightness temperatures (Tb) and sea ice concentrations Tb (in Kelvins) and sea ice concentration (in percent) grids have 25 x 25 km grid elements in polar stereographic projection. Volume 7 contains all SMMR sea ice concentrations for both polar regions, plus 5 months of Tb grids for the north polar region. The Tb grids are stored as 16-bit integers; one day of Tb N. data is 0.27 MB S. data is 0.21 MB. Ice grids stored as 8-bit integers, NASA Team Algorithm used to calculate ice concentrations from the Tbs. | 12 CD-ROMs; Input data set is SMMR TCT tapes. Data produced by Dr. P. Gloersen, NASA/GSFC, Oceans and Ice Branch. Documentation is provided on the CD-ROMs, in a hard-copy User's Guide, and in the "SMMR Atlas", NASA Special Report SP-511 (Gloersen, et al., 1992.) |
| Eastern Arctic Ice, Ocean and Atmosphere Data, Volume 1, (CEAREX-1) | 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 | Meteorology from Marginal Ice Zone Experiment (MIZEX), 1983, 1984, 1987. Experiment location: Arctic Ocean north of Svalbard; Fram Strait, Sep. 1988 - May 1989 | Sea ice acceleration, deformation and stress; hydrography (CTDs); meteorology; bathymetry; acoustics and ambient noise (sample data) from Coordinated Eastern Arctic Experiment (CEAREX). Includes meteorology from Marginal Ice Zone Experiment (MIZEX), | Amount of data: 460 MB. Data format: ASCII files. Associated software: none. Additional volumes are planned. |
| NWS/NOHRSC Snow Cover Data | CD-ROM Snow Cover Data, National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center (NOHRSC), National Weather Service, NOAA, 1735 Lake Drive West, Chanhassen, Minnesota 55317-8582 612/361-6610, FAX 612/361-6634, email tim@snow.nohrsc.nws.gov (Tim Szeliga) dial-up bbs 612/361-6632 | $50/year | Major portions of the U.S., Alaska, and Canada. 1990-1993 | (1) airborne snow water equivalent data and the digitized flight line network, (2) calibrated AVHRR and GOES satellite data used to map snow cover, (3) classified snow cover images (4) national and regional snow cover image products, and (5) ancillary data sets including digital elevation data, digitized NWS basin boundaries, and the alphanumeric results of the satellite snow cover mapping by basin and by elevation zone. | |
| STORM-FEST Data | Contact Steve Williams, sfw@ncar.ucar.edu | Unknown. | STORM-FEST Experiment | Surface observations and rawinsonde, satellite, radar, NOWRAD, and profiler data | 3 discs; includes Zeb software |
| AVHRR Monthly Global MCSST / CZCS Data | PO.DAAC at JPL. Contact the User Services Office at podaac@podaac.jpl.nasa.gov | On request | Monthly averages; CZCS data: 1978-1986; AVHRR data: 1981-1986 (5 years of coregistered data) | Phytoplankton pigment concentration data set contains monthly averaged sea-surface temperatures (day and night) derived from NOAA satellite AVHRR which are temporally and spatially coregistered with phytoplankton pigment concentration data acquired from the CZCS instrument on Nimbus-7. | 5 discs |
| TOPEX/Poseidon Altimeter merged Geophysical Data record | PO.DAAC at JPL. Contact the User Services Office at podaac@podaac.jpl.nasa.gov | On request | Global | data from the TOPEX/POSEIDON mission from both the U.S. and French altimeters with high precision orbits and environmental corrections. | The data are distributed on CD-ROMs (ISO 9660) and in an integer format usable on VAX, UNIX, PCs, and Macs. Each CD-ROM contains two ten-day cycles of data, precision orbit, and cross-over files for each cycle and read software for VAX and UNIX. As of May '94 cycles 1-52 exist on CD-ROM. |
| TOGA related satellite and in-situ data CD-ROM | PO.DAAC at JPL. Contact the User Services Office at podaac@podaac.jpl.nasa.gov | On request | 1985-1990 | Satellite, in-situ, and model derived data pertaining to atmospheric and oceanographic parameters, including ocean currents, sea-surface temperature and salinity, air temperature and pressure, cloud, and precipitation. | 7 CD-ROMs. Software included; data provided by agencies worldwide. |
| TOGA/COARE GMS-4 images | Contact: Satellite Oceanography Laboratory, University of Hawaii, 1000 Pope Road, Honolulu, HI 96822. | $75 | TOGA/COARE Intensive Observation Period regridded over 135E - 175E, 10S - 10N, 5km square pixel size. Nov.1992-March 1993 | 1910 infrared and 877 visible images of albedo and brightness temperature with overlays of the geographic grid and the positions of moorings and ships. | 2 discs. Images are in compressed PostScript format but tools are included to uncompress and convert the data into other formats. Checks should be made to the order of "RCUH" |
| ATLAST
OCEANATLAS |
PO.DAAC at JPL. Contact the User Services Office at podaac@podaac.jpl.nasa.gov | ATLAST, a PC software atlas and plotting tool for oceanographic sections. OCEANATLAS, a Macintosh software atlas and plotting tool for oceanographic sections. |
This page was prepared by
Sally Bates.
