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.

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.

The NOAA Regional Surface Data - 1989 (NCDC) Data Set contains hourly surface meteorological data for the FIFE area. Though the measurements presented in this data set were not taken precisely at the FIFE study area, it is hypothesized that they present a representative horizontal cross-section of meteorological variables and sky conditions in and around the site. It is also realized that many of the variables presented in this data set are somewhat subjective and dependent on the skill (and biases) of the observer, such as estimates of cloud amount and height. This data may be used as input data and/or verification data for numerical simulation models.

ISCCP_TOVS_NAT_1 is the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS) data set in the Native Data Format. It is a daily, global description of the ozone, temperature, and humidity distributions obtained from the analysis of data from the TOVS system. The TOVS data set contents include atmosphere and surface data including temperature structure, water, and ozone abundances obtained from the TOVS product and supplemented by two climatologies. The ISCCP_TOVS_NAT data set contains information concerning the atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles as well as the ozone column abundance. Data collection for this data set is complete.This data set is composed of 3 types of data files: CLIM MONTHLY, which contains the monthly climatological data obtained from balloon observations; TOVS MONTHLY, which contains the monthly climatological data computed from the daily TOVS values; and TOVS DAILY, which contains the daily composite of the TOVS Sounding Product. The data was collected on a global equal-area grid with the cell area equivalent to 2.5 degrees latitude/longitude at the equator. The grid began at the South Pole with the intersection of the Greenwich meridian (0 deg. longitude) and the South Pole as a cell corner. The TOVS system flew on the NOAA Operational Polar Orbiting Satellite series. Measurements from the High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS/2), the Stratospheric Sounding Unit (SSU), and the Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) were processed by NOAA to produce the TOVS Sounding Product.ISCCP was the first project of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), to collect and analyze satellite radiance measurements to infer the global distribution of cloud radiative properties and their diurnal and seasonal variations. These data and analysis products were used to improve the understanding and modeling of the effects of clouds on climate. The ISCCP version of the ice/snow data set included only information concerning fractional coverage. The version actually used in the cloud analysis was changed in two ways: reductions to ice/snow presence and creation of margin zones in the data. The first of these was simply the process of converting the coded parameters in the original data set to code values that indicate only the presence or absence of sea ice and/or snow. The latter process filled in nearby grid cells in the data to indicate proximity to snow or sea ice covered locations. The second change is not included in the archived version of this data.

Time series of monthly minimum and maximum temperature, precipitation, and potential evapotranspiration were derived for 1,469 watersheds in the conterminous United States for which stream flow measurements were also available from the national streamflow database, termed the Hydro-Climatic Data Network (HCDN), developed by Slack et al. (1993a,b). Monthly climate estimates were derived for the years 1951-1990.The climate characteristic estimates of temperature and precipitation were estimated using the PRISM (Daly et al. 1994, 1997) climate analysis system as described in Vogel, et al. 1999.Estimates of monthly potential evaporation were obtained using a method introduced by Hargreaves and Samani (1982) which is based on monthly time series of average minimum and maximum temperature data along with extraterrestrial solar radiation. Extraterrestrial solar radiation was estimated for each basin by computing the solar radiation over 0.1 degree grids using the method introduced by Duffie and Beckman (1980) and then summing those estimates for each river basin. This process is described in Sankarasubramanian, et al. (2001). Revision Notes: This data set has been revised to update the number of watersheds included in the data set and to updated the units for the potential evapotranspiration variable. Please see the Data Set Revisions section of this document for detailed information.

Weather data were collected by the National Weather Service in International Falls, Minnesota. International Falls is about 80 miles from the SNF, but the weather data is representative of the area. Total solar insolation measurements were made at Fall Lake Dam in Winton, Minn. by Prof. Donald Baker of the Department of Soil Science at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul. Insolation values were measured using a Yellow Springs solar cell calibrated against an Eppley Pyranometer.

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.

Weather data were collected by the National Weather Service in International Falls, Minnesota. International Falls is about 80 miles from the SNF, but the weather data is representative of the area. Total solar insolation measurements were made at Fall Lake Dam in Winton, Minn. by Prof. Donald Baker of the Department of Soil Science at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul. Insolation values were measured using a Yellow Springs solar cell calibrated against an Eppley Pyranometer.

Weather data were collected by the National Weather Service in International Falls, Minnesota. International Falls is about 80 miles from the SNF, but the weather data is representative of the area. Total solar insolation measurements were made at Fall Lake Dam in Winton, Minn. by Prof. Donald Baker of the Department of Soil Science at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul. Insolation values were measured using a Yellow Springs solar cell calibrated against an Eppley Pyranometer.