Edited Synoptic Cloud Reports from Ships and Land Stations Over the Globe, 1982-1991 (NDP-026B)
- University of Arizona, Department of Atmospheric Sciences; OSTI
- University of Washington, Department of Atmospheric Sciences
- University of Colorado, Department of Astrophysical, Planetary and Atmospheric Sciences
Surface synoptic weather reports for the entire globe for the 10-year period from December 1981 through November 1991 have been processed, edited, and rewritten to provide a data set designed for use in cloud analyses. The information in these reports relating to clouds, including the present weather information, was extracted and put through a series of quality control checks. Reports not meeting certain quality control standards were rejected, as were reports from buoys and automatic weather stations. Correctable inconsistencies within reports were edited for consistency, so that the "edited cloud report" can be used for cloud analysis without further quality checking. Cases of "sky obscured" were interpreted by reference to the present weather code as to whether they indicated fog, rain or snow and were given appropriate cloud type designations. Nimbostratus clouds, which are not specifically coded for in the standard synoptic code, were also given a special designation. Changes made to an original report are indicated in the edited report so that the original report can be reconstructed if desired. While low cloud amount is normally given directly in the synoptic report, the edited cloud report also includes the amounts, either directly reported or inferred, of middle and high clouds, both the non-overlapped amounts and the "actual" amounts (which may be overlapped). Since illumination from the moon is important for the adequate detection of clouds at night, both the relative lunar illuminance and the solar altitude are given, as well as a parameter that indicates whether our recommended illuminance criterion was satisfied. This data set contains 124 million reports from land stations and 15 million reports from ships. Each report is 56 characters in length. The archive consists of 240 files, one file for each month of data for land and ocean separately. With this data set a user can develop a climatology for any particular cloud type or group of types, for any geographical region and any spatial and temporal resolution desired. For access to the data files, click this link to the CDIAC data transition website: http://cdiac.ess-dive.lbl.gov/epubs/ndp/ndp026b/ndp026b.html
- Research Organization:
- Environmental System Science Data Infrastructure for a Virtual Ecosystem
- Sponsoring Organization:
- U.S. DOE > Office of Science (SC) > Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23); National Atmospheric and Space Administration
- OSTI ID:
- 1394929
- Report Number(s):
- doi:10.3334/CDIAC/CLI.NDP026B; cdiac:doi 10.3334/CDIAC/cli.ndp026.b; ESD Publication No. 4367
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Extended Edited Synoptic Cloud Reports from Ships and Land Stations Over the Globe, 1952-2009 (NDP-026C)
A Gridded Climatology of Clouds over Land (1971-1996) and Ocean (1954-2008) from Surface Observations Worldwide (NDP-026E)*
Related Subjects
AH
AM
CH
CL
CM
Change Code
Cloud Amount
Cloud Base Height
Cloud Type
Day
Hour
IB
IC
ID
LAT
LO
LON
Land/Ocean Indicator
Latitude
Longitude
Month
N
NDP-026B
Nh
Present Weather
RI
Relative Lunar Illuminance
SA
Sky Brightness Indicator
Solar Altitude
Source Deck
Station Number
Total Cloud Cover
UH
UM
Year
dy
h
hr
mn
ww
yr