This data set contains a mean monthly climatology for several climate variables averaged over the period from 1961 to 1990, and constructed from a data set of station 1961-1990 climatological normals, numbering between 19,800 (precipitation) and 3,615 (windspeed; see New et al, 1999 for details). The station data were interpolated as a function of latitude, longitude and elevation using thin-plate splines. The data comprise a suite of climate elements: precipitation, mean, maximum, and minimum temperature, frost frequency, diurnal temperature range, radiation, wet-day frequency, vapor pressure, wind, and cloud cover. There are 23 files in this data set provided at 0.5 and 1.0 degree spatial resolutions.

This data set for the ISLSCP Initiative II data collection provides meteorology data with fixed, monthly, monthly-6-hourly, 6-hourly, and 3-hourly temporal resolutions. The data were derived from the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) near-surface meteorology data set, 40-year re-analysis, or ERA-40 (Simmons and Gibson, 2000), which covers the years 1957 to 2001. The data were processed onto the ISLSCP II Earth grid with a spatial resolution of 1-degree in both latitude and longitude, and span the common ISLSCP II period from 1986 to 1995.The ECMWF forecast system is called the Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) and was developed in co-operation with Meteo-France. For ERA40 it is used with 60 levels from the top of the model at 10 Pa to the lowest level at about 10 m above the surface. There are 46 compressed (.tar.gz) data files with this data set. Each uncompressed file contains space-delimited text (.asc) data files.

This data set contains cloud and meteorology data on a 1.0 degree x 1.0 degree spatial resolution. There are eight data files (*.zip) with this data set for several cloud parameters (monthly only) and meteorological parameters including monthly surface skin temperature, monthly total column ozone, and water vapor burdens for the period 1986-1995. All monthly parameters include files with a monthly mean value, a monthly standard deviation, and monthly minimum and maximum values.

This data set for the ISLSCP Initiative II data collection provides near surface meteorological variables, fluxes of heat, moisture and momentum at the surface, and land surface state variables, all with a spatial resolution of 1 degree in both latitude and longitude. There are four temporal categories of data: time invariant and monthly mean annual cycle fields (together referred to as "fixed" fields), monthly mean fields, monthly 3-hourly diurnal, and 3-hourly fields. Two types of variables exist in this data; instantaneous fields (primarily state variables), and average fields (primarily flux fields expressed as a rate). The Center for Ocean-Land Atmosphere Studies (COLA) near-surface data set for ISLSCP II was derived from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)/Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Model Inter-comparison Project (AMIP-II) reanalysis (http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/wesley/reanalysis2/), covering the years from 1979-2003. The data set for ISLSCP II covers the period from 1986 to 1995. The purpose of the reanalysis was to provide an improved version of the original NCEP/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) reanalysis for General Circulation Model (GCM) validation. To co-register the NCEP/DOE reanalysis on the ISLSCP 1-degree grid, the reanalysis data set was regridded from its native T62 Gaussian grid) resolution (192 x 94 grid boxes globally) to 1-degree ISLSCP II required resolution.There are 136 compressed (.tar.gz) data files with this data set. When extrapolated, the individual data files are in ASCII (.asc) format.

A 0.5 degree lat/lon data set of monthly surface climate over global land areas, excluding Antarctica. Primary variables are interpolated directly from station time-series: precipitation, mean temperature and diurnal temperature range.

This data set contains monthly climate time series data created by the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia, U.K., for every year covering the period 1986 to 1995. This time series is a subset of a larger CRU monthly data set that covers the period of 1901 to 1996. The data comprise a suite of six climate elements: precipitation, mean temperature, diurnal temperature range, wet-day frequency, vapor pressure, and cloud cover. There are 13 files in this data set provided at 0.5 and 1.0 degree spatial resolutions.

The Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) Version 2 data set includes global, monthly precipitation rates and associated random errors (RMSE), and a monthly precipitation climatology derived as an average from all GPCP data sets from January 1979 to December 1999. The data are derived from measured gauge data and merged with satellite estimates of rainfall. This is a portion of the version 2 GPCP data and covers the ISLSCP II period from 1986 to 1995. There are six data files included with this data set: the original precipitation rates, errors and climatology at 2.5 degrees spatial resolution, and the same data re-gridded to a 1 degree spatial resolution by the ISLSCP II staff.

A data set of mean monthly surface climate over global land areas, excluding Antarctica. Interpolated from station data to 0.5 degrees lat/lon for a range of variables: precipitation and wet-day frequency, mean temperature and diurnal temperature range (from which maximum temperature and minimum temperature can be determined), vapour pressure, sunshine, cloud cover, ground-frost frequency and windspeed.

Global surface temperatures in 2010 tied 2005 as the warmest on record. The International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) was established in 1982 as part of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) to collect and analyze the global distribution of clouds, their properties, and their diurnal, seasonal, and interannual variations. The LAS provides data for Monthly Near-Surface Air Temperature Averages from 1994 to 2008.