New volumes planned for release in the Atlas of …NODC Ocean Climate Laboratory In 1994, the National Oceanographic Data Center began to publish the 5-volume Atlas of Surface Marine

U.S. DEPARTMENTOF COMMERCE

National Oceanicand AtmosphericAdministration

Vol. 8, No. 3 ● March 1998

EARTH SYSTEM MONITOR

A guide toNOAA's data and

informationservices

INSIDE

3News briefs

6The NCDC Global

Temperature Index

9LOICZ and NODC share

common waters

11The Coast and

Geodetic SurveyAlbum

13NCDC releases

HUSWO and INSWOCD-ROMs

15Data productsand services

DE

PA

RTMENT OF COMMERC

E

★ ★

UN

ITEDSTATES OF AMER

ICA

▲ Figure 1. One-half-degree analysis of latent heat flux over the North Atlantic Ocean for January 1945-1989. Contour interval is 10 Watts/meter2. Individual marine observations are taken from COADS Release 1and Release 1 Update. Winds, corrected according to da Silva et al., 1994, and the Large and Pond, 1982,transfer coefficients are used to calculate individual fluxes. Gridded mean fluxes are analyzed with an objec-tive analysis scheme on a one-half-degree latitude by one-half-degree longitude grid. Smallest features re-solved are about 386 km in size.

Christine C. Young-Molling1

Department of GeosciencesUniversity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Arlindo M. da Silva2

Data Assimilation OfficeNASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Sydney Levitus3

NOAA/NESDISNODC Ocean Climate Laboratory

In 1994, the National Oceanographic DataCenter began to publish the 5-volume Atlas ofSurface Marine Data 1994 (da Silva et al., 1994)and accompanying CD-ROMs. This atlas seriescontained 1-degree latitude by 1-degree longi-tude analyses of observed quantities (such as seasurface temperature, surface air temperature,

relative humidity, winds, etc.), heat fluxes, mo-mentum fluxes, and fresh water fluxes derivedfrom individual marine observations found inthe Comprehensive Ocean Atmosphere Data Set(COADS) Release 1 (Slutz et al., 1985) and up-dates. This article introduces a sixth volume ofthis atlas series and two supplements along withsix CD-ROMs containing their correspondinganalyzed data, which are expected to be availablein April 1998.

Heat flux sensitivity to sea surface temperatureVolume 6 of the Atlas of Surface Marine Data

1994 is entitled Heat Flux Sensitivity to Sea SurfaceTemperature (Young-Molling et al., 1997a). In thisvolume, one-degree monthly climatologies andanomalies have been calculated for the first orderderivative of the components of constrained net

– continued on page 2

New volumes planned for release in theAtlas of Surface Marine Data series

Monthly anomaly fields extended through 1993

2 March 1998EARTH SYSTEM MONITOR

EARTH SYSTEM MONITOR

The Earth System Monitor (ISSN 1068-2678) is published quarterly by the NOAAEnvironmental Information Services office.Questions, comments, or suggestions forarticles, as well as requests for subscrip-tions and changes of address, should bedirected to the Editor, Sheri A. Phillips.

The mailing address for the Earth SystemMonitor is:National Oceanographic Data CenterNOAA/NESDIS E/OC1SSMC3, 4th Floor1315 East-West HighwaySilver Spring, MD 20910-3282

MANAGING EDITORDr. Anthony R. Picciolo

Telephone: 301-713-3281 ext.140Fax: 301-713-3302

E-mail: [email protected]

EDITORSheri Phillips



ASSOCIATE EDITORRoger Torstenson



DISCLAIMERMention in the Earth System Monitor ofcommercial companies or commercialproducts does not constitute an endorse-ment or recommendation by the NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Administrationor the U.S. Department of Commerce.Use for publicity or advertising purposes ofinformation published in the Earth SystemMonitor concerning proprietary productsor the tests of such products is notauthorized.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCEWilliam M. Daley, Secretary

National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration

D. James Baker,Under Secretary and Administrator

NA

TIO

NA

LO

CEA

NICAND ATMOSPHERIC

ADMIN

IST

RA

TIO

N

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMER

CE


heat flux with respect to changes in seasurface temperature. Sensitivities tochanges in sea surface temperatures(SSTs) are shown for constrained netheat flux, latent heat flux, sensible heatflux, long wave radiation, long wavevapor pressure term, and long wavecloudiness parameter (Table 1).

The heat flux sensitivity to changein SSTs was estimated for each observa-tion by calculating the heat flux (or heatflux component) at observed SSTs andat SSTs + 0.01°C, subtracting the flux atSSTs from the flux at SSTs + 0.01°C, anddividing by 0.01. These individual de-rivatives were then averaged in one-degree latitude-longitude boxes over theglobal ocean for each month.

Climatologies were produced andanalyzed for each of the 12 months,January through December, for the pe-riod 1945-1989. Anomalies from themonthly climatologies were producedand analyzed for each of the 540months from January, 1945 throughDecember, 1989. The analysis techniqueused is identical to that in the previousAtlas of Surface Marine Data volumes (daSilva et al., 1994).

The sensitivities of heat flux tochanges in SSTs are intended, in part,for the use of ocean modelers who wishto force sea surface heating as the sumof net heat flux and a Newtonian cool-ing term. Volume 6 details the calcula-tion of these heat flux sensitivities,shows seasonal climatology (December-January-February 1945-1989 throughSeptember-October-November 1945-1989) and seasonal anomalies (January-February 1945 through September-Octo-ber-November 1989) for constrained netheat flux sensitivity to SSTs, and showsseasonal climatology (1945-1989) fig-ures for each component of the con-strained net heat flux sensitivity to SSTs.

A companion CD-ROM containingall the analyzed climatologies and ano-malies of heat flux sensitivity tochanges in SSTs will also be available.The data and access software will be con-tained on Disc 4 of the “Atlas of SurfaceMarine Data” CD-ROM collection.

1Department of GeosciencesUniversity of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeP.O. Box 413Milwaukee, WI 53201E-mail: [email protected]

2Data Assimilation OfficeNASA Goddard Space Flight CenterGreebelt, MD 20771E-mail: [email protected]

3Ocean Climate LaboratoryNOAA/NESDIS/NODCSSMC3, 4th Floor1315 East-West HighwaySilver Spring, MD 20910-3282E-mail: [email protected]

▲ Table 1. Volume 6 of the Surface Marine Atlas: Sensitivity of heat flux to sea surfacetemperatures (SSTs). The table lists each variable whose one-degree analysis parameter-ization is contained in Volume 6. Also shown are the types of plots included in theatlas volume and the names of the data files that will be included on Disc 4 of the“Atlas of Surface Marine Data” CD-ROM set.Variable 1945-1989 monthly 1945-1989 monthly Seasonal SeasonalDescription climatology file anomaly file Climatology Maps Anomaly Maps

Sensitivity of constrained dqdt_clm.nc dqdsst.nc X Xnet heat flux to changesin SSTs

Sensitivity of latent dldt_clm.nc dldsst.nc Xheat flux to changesin SSTs

Sensitivity of sensible dsdt_clm.nc dsdsst.nc Xheat flux to changesin SSTs

Sensitivity of long wave dodt_clm.nc dodsst.nc Xradiation to changesin SSTs

Sensitivity of long wave dedt_clm.nc daedsst.nc Xvapor pressure term tochanges in Ts

Sensitivity of long wave dxdt_clm.nc daxdsst.nc XChi term to changesin SSTs

Surface Marine Atlas, from page 1

3March 1998 EARTH SYSTEM MONITOR

News briefsNODC and NCEP collaborate onarchive of ocean modeling output

NOAA’s National OceanographicData Center (NODC) and the NationalCenters for Environmental Prediction(NCEP) have launched a joint projectthrough which NODC will archive anddistribute model output from the newNCEP Coastal Ocean Forecasting System(COFS). COFS, developed by NOAA incollaboration with Princeton Universityand the U.S. Navy, is nearly completed.This computer model will provide fore-casts of the three-dimensional tempera-ture, salinity, current, and sea levelstructure of the coastal ocean off of theU.S. east coast (~30-48°N, and from thecoast out to 50°W).

Twenty-four hour forecasts of themodel fields have been produced sinceAugust of 1993 on a daily basis, and im-provements have been continually incor-porated. NCEP is responsible for runningthe model and making output available toselected users.

A severe shortage of online storage atNCEP has made it possible to store onlysix weeks of ocean model output online.To alleviate the storage problem, NODCand NCEP have established a cooperativearrangement whereby the NODC willarchive the output from COFS, matchingNCEP’s computational capability withNODC’s ability to efficiently store andarchive large quantities of information.Output from COFS has been archived atNODC since January 1997 and is availableto selected users. When validation of themodel is complete, output from COFS willbe available to all users.

NOAA/NASA study Cerro HudsonThe Cerro Hudson Volcano in South-

ern Chile erupted on August 15, 1991,spewing tons of ash and sulphur dioxideinto the upper atmosphere. The resultingplume was detected by NOAA-11 AVHRR(Advanced Very High Resolution Radiom-eter) while the Nimbus-7 TOMS (TotalOzone Mapping Spectrometer) observedincreased levels of sulphur dioxide andaerosols in the mid-latitudes of the South-ern Hemisphere shortly after the eruption.

This research merges TOMS andAVHRR datasets to examine the physicaland chemical fates of the Hudson eruptionclouds as they circled the Earth. HudsonAVHRR data are difficult to analyze for ashmass due to very cold meteorologicalclouds underlying warmer volcanic clouds;thus, the focus of the joint research effort.

Thirty-four AVHRR level 1b datasets weresupplied by the National Climatic DataCenter’s (NCDC) Satellite Services Groupfor the project.

Opportunities 98: making dollarsand sense selling to governmentagencies

The National Climatic Data Center(NCDC) will staff a booth at the thirdsmall business procurement conference,sponsored by Congressman Charles Tay-lor, 11th District, North Carolina. Theconference will be held at the Grove ParkInn Resort in Asheville, NC, on March 16,1998. Past conferences have been wellattended by hundreds of small businessesfrom all over Western North Carolina whowant to know how to market their goodsand services to prime contractors and alllevels of governmental agencies. Con-gressman Taylor is sponsoring the confer-ence in cooperation with the SmallBusiness and Technology DevelopmentCenter (SBTDC), Minority BusinessPrograms and other organizations sup-porting small business.

Data center technology briefingTed Habermann of the National Geo-

physical Data Center (NGDC) presented abriefing on emerging Web-based dataaccess tools to management and technicalleadership from all three NESDIS datacenters. He focused on the Internet MapServer recently developed by Environmen-tal Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI)and the Interactive Data Language (IDL)developed by Research Systems Inc., anddemonstrated how these commercial off-the-shelf tools could interface with exist-ing data access systems at NGDC. Thisbriefing was an important step towardincreasing collaboration between NOAA’sNational Data Centers.

NODC scientist reconstructsAntarctic plate movement

The January 1998 issue of “Discover(The World of Science)” highlighted thetop 100 science stories of 1997, and in-cluded the work of Dave McAdoo (Na-tional Oceanographic Data Center)among the top five in earth science.McAdoo used altimeter data near Antarc-tica to reconstruct plate tectonic move-ments over the last 80 million years,solving a puzzle related to the originalbreakup of Gondwanaland.

It was first suggested about a decadeago that a Bellingshausen Sea plate hadonce separated from the main body ofAntarctica. McAdoo and Seymour Laxon(University College London) used radaraltimeter data from the European satellite,ERS-1, to reveal the surface topographyand, hence, deduce a gravity field forthese poorly surveyed ice-covered seas.Upon using their ERS-1 gravity field toinfer bottom topography, the two mendiscovered previously unknown fracturezones in what is now the frozen Amund-sen Sea. The fractures represent the tracksof the Bellingshausen plate as it moved100 to 200 miles to the northeast.

McAdoo stated that they had foundfirm evidence for an extinct plate bound-ary between the Bellingshausen and therest of Antarctica. Groundtruthing surveysfrom icebreakers must now confirm it.

1997 Fall AGU MeetingOver 7,150 attendees witnessed the

first appearance of the NOAA NationalData Centers from December 8-12 in SanFrancisco at the American GeophysicalUnion annual meeting. The National Geo-physical Data Center (NGDC), the Na-tional Oceanographic Data Center(NODC), and the National Snow and IceData Center (NSIDC) maintained demon-stration booths; the exhibit was even moresuccessful this year due to the extra atten-tion given to several new brochures andhandouts depicting the Year of the Ocean(calendar), the Icosahedron Surface of theEarth Globe and a new collage of ImageProducts from NGDC. NGDC’s boothincluded demonstrations of a web-browser based interface to scanned im-ages of Lamont-Doherty seismic profiles.The interface operates on a PC from CD-ROM and does not require an Internetconnection.

Blizzard of '93 documentaryThe National Geographic Society

was provided with Geostationary Opera-tional Environmental Satellite (GOES) andPolar-orbiting Operational EnvironmentalSatellite (POES) satellite images of one ofthe worst blizzards of the decade, andprobably of this century. The best imagewill be used in the “National Geographic”magazine as an advertisement which spot-lights an upcoming television documen-tary on the storm. The Blizzard of ’93,sometimes called the “Storm of the Cen-tury,” was one of the strongest winterstorms ever to hit the eastern third of theU.S.. Over two-hundred people in thirteenstates lost their lives during the March 12-15, 1993, storm.


Supplement A: 1990-1993 updateSupplement A to the Atlas of Sur-

face Marine Data 1994 is entitledAnomalies of Directly Observed Quantitiesand Surface Marine Fluxes for 1990-1993(Young-Molling et al., 1997b). Thissupplement contains additional one-degree anomalies for most of the quan-tities found in Volumes 1-5 of the Atlasof Surface Marine Data 1994. Table 2contains list of variables found withinthis supplemental work.

Using individual observations fromCOADS Release 1a (Woodruff et al.,

1993) and a supplemental release for1993, monthly means of selected ob-served quantities and surface fluxeswere calculated for each of the 48months during 1990-1993 on a one-degree latitude-longitude grid. Anoma-lies based on the 1945-1989 climatolo-gies were then calculated and analyzedfor January 1990 through December1993. The analysis technique used isthe same as in previous volumes of theseries (da Silva et al., 1994).

The anomalies found in Supple-ment A are intended to be an extensionof the anomaly time series presented in

Volumes 1 through 6. Supplement Ashows the 1945-1989 seasonal climatol-ogy for each variable (same figure as infound in Volumes 1-6) and the seasonalanomalies for December-January-Febru-ary 1989/1990 through September-October-November 1993. The monthlyanomaly data for 1990-1993 and soft-ware with which to read it will be lo-cated on a companion CD-ROM, Disc 5of the “Atlas of Surface Marine Data”CD-ROM collection.

Supplement B: 1/2-degree analysisSupplement B to the Atlas of Surface

Marine Data 1994 is entitled Proceduresfor the 1/2 x 1/2 Degree Data Set (da Silvaet al., 1997). This atlas presents thetechniques used in a finer scale analysisof the data found in Volumes 1-5. InVolumes 1-5, analyzed monthly clima-tologies and anomalies were presentedon a one-degree latitude-longitude grid.Supplement B presents analyzedmonthly climatologies and weekly cli-matologies of the same quantities on ahalf-degree latitude-longitude grid.

Monthly anomalies were not pro-duced on this finer grid due to insuffi-cient data density. However, the weeklyhalf-degree climatologies were pro-duced in order show the annual cyclein more detail. Table 3 has a completelist of the variables described in thissupplement.

Calculation of the monthly half-degree climatologies was similar to thecalculation of the one-degree climatolo-gies. Individual observations fromCOADS Release 1 and Release 1 Updatewere used. Quantities were then aver-aged on a 1/2-degree longitude by 1/2-degree latitude grid over the globalocean for each month. These grids wereaveraged to produce 12 monthly clima-tologies (1945-1989) and then ana-lyzed. The analysis procedure is similarto that for the one-degree analysis, ex-cept that the smallest features resolvedare about 386 km in size.

The half-degree weekly climatolo-gies were produced by averaging quan-tities on a half-degree latitude-longitudegrid for each of the 52 climatologicalweeks. A climatological week containsall observations from the period 1945-1989 which fall in the same seven daysduring any year (two of the weeks have8 days). For example, week 1 climatol-ogy is an average of all observations

Surface Marine Atlas, from page 2

Variable 1945-1989 monthly 1990-1993 monthly 1990-1993 monthly Seasonal 1945-1989Description climatology file anomaly file observation density climatology/1990-

1993 anomaly maps

Short wave cloudiness ac_clm.nc ac.nc2sensitivity parameter

Long wave Chi term achi_clm.nc achi.nc2sensitivity parameter

Long wave vapor ae_clm.nc ae.nc2pressure sensitivityparameter

Air density rho_clm.nc airdens.nc2

Fractional cloudiness c_clm.nc cloud.nc2 c_n.nc2 X

Constrained evaporation emp_clm.nc eminusp.nc2 Xminus precipitation

Evaporation evap_clm.nc evaprate.nc2 X

Latent heat flux latn_clm.nc latent3.nc2 X

Long wave radiation long_clm.nc longrad.nc2 X

Constrained net heat flux neth_clm.nc netheat.nc2 X

Precipitation prcp_clm.nc precip.nc2 wx_n.nc2 X

Specific humidity q_clm.nc q.nc2 q_n.nc2 X

Saturation specific dq_clm.nc qs_qa.nc2 Xminus specific humidity

Air temperature sat_clm.nc sat.nc2 sat_n.nc2 X

Sensible heat flux sens_clm.nc sensib3.nc2 X

Short wave radiation shrt_clm.nc shortrad.nc2 X

Sea level pressure slp_clm.nc slp.nc2 slp_n.nc2 X

Sea surface temperature sst_clm.nc sst.nc2 sst_n.nc2 X

Sea minus air temperature dt_clm.nc sst_sat.nc2 X

Zonal wind stress taux_clm.nc taux3.nc2 X

Meridional wind stress tauy_clm.nc tauy3.nc2 X

Zonal wind speed u3_clm.nc u3.nc2 X

Vapor pressure vapp_clm.nc vappress.nc2 X

Meridional wind speed v3_clm.nc v3.nc2 X

Wind speed w3_clm.nc w3.nc2 w_n.nc2 X

▲ Table 2. Supplement A: Anomalies of directly observed quantities and surface marinefluxes for 1990-1993. Listed is each quantity whose 1990-1993 anomalies are de-scribed in Supplement A. Additional information, such as the variables plotted inSupplement A and the names of the data files that will be on the accompanying CD-ROM (Disc 5 of “Atlas of Surface Marine Data” CD-ROM set), is also listed.


Variable 1945-1989 monthly 1945-1989 weekly Seasonal climatology Weekly climatologyDescription climatology file climatology file maps (from monthly) maps

Short wave cloudiness ac_clm.nc (6) ac_wkc.nc (8)sensitivity parameter

Long wave Chi term achi_clm.nc (6) achi_wkc.nc (8)sensitivity parameter

Long wave vapor pressure ae_clm.nc (6) ae_wkc.nc (8)sensitivity parameter

Buoyancy flux buoy_clm.nc (6) buoy_wkc.nc (9) X

Fractional cloudiness cld_clm.nc (6) cld_wkc.nc (7) X

Saturation specific minus dq_clm.nc (6) dq_wkc.nc (7) Xspecific humidity

Sea minus air temperature dt_clm.nc (6) dt_wkc.nc (7) X

Vapor pressure e_clm.nc (6) e_wkc.nc (7) X

Constrained evaporation emp_clm.nc (6) emp_wkc.nc (9) Xminus precipitation

Evaporation evap_clm.nc (6) evap_wkc.nc (9) X

Cube of friction velocity fv3_clm.nc (6) fv3_wkc.nc (8) X

Latent heat flux latn_clm.nc (6) latn_wkc.nc (8) X

Long wave radiation long_clm.nc (6) long_wkc.nc (8) X

Constrained net heat flux neth_clm.nc (6) neth_wkc.nc (8) X X

Precipitation prcp_clm.nc (6) prcp_wkc.nc (9) X

Specific humidity q_clm.nc (6) q_wkc.nc (7) X

Saturation specific humidity qs_clm.nc (6) qs_wkc.nc (9) X

Relative humidity rh_clm.nc (6) rh_wkc.nc (7) X

Air density rho_clm.nc (6) rho_wkc.nc (9)

Air temperature sat_clm.nc (6) sat_wkc.nc (7) X

Sensible heat flux sens_clm.nc (6) sens_wkc.nc (8) X

Short wave radiation shrt_clm.nc (6) shrt_wkc.nc (8) X

Sea level presuure slp_clm.nc (6) slp_wkc.nc (7) X

Sea surface temperature sst_clm.nc (6) sst_wkc.nc (7) X X

Zonal wind stress taux_clm.nc (6) taux_wkc.nc (8) X X

Meridional wind stress tauy_clm.nc (6) tauy_wkc.nc (8) X X

Virtual temperature tv_clm.nc (6) tv_wkc.nc (9) X

Zonal wind speed u3_clm.nc (6) u3_wkc.nc (7) X

Zonal temperature flux ua_clm.nc (6) ua_wkc.nc (9)

Zonal moisture flux uq_clm.nc (6) uq_wkc.nc (9) X

Meridional wind speed v3_clm.nc (6) v3_wkc.nc (7) X

Meridional temperature flux va_clm.nc (6) va_wkc.nc (9)

Meridional moisture flux vq_clm.nc (6) vq_wkc.nc (9) X

Wind speed w3_clm.nc (6) w3_wkc.nc (7) X

10m/(Monin-Obukhov zdl_clm.nc (6) zdl_wkc.nc (9) XLength)

▲ Table 3. Supplement B: Procedures for the 1/2 x 1/2 Degree Data Set. Listed iseach quantity whose half- by half-degree monthly and weekly analyses are describedin Supplement B. Also listed are names of variables plotted in Supplement B as wellas names and disc number of the data files that will be placed on the accompanyingCD-ROMs (Discs 6-9 of “Atlas of Surface Marine Data” CD-ROM set).

that take place on January 1st throughJanuary 7th, regardless of year. Theweekly gridded means were then ana-lyzed in a way similar to the monthlyhalf-degree analysis.

The monthly and weekly clima-tologies found in Supplement B areintended to provide a finer scale study(in both area and time) of the one-de-gree climatologies presented in Vol-umes 1 through 5. Supplement B shows1945-1989 seasonal climatology plots,produced from the half-degree monthlyclimatologies, for most variables in thehalf-degree data set. Also shown areplots of weekly climatologies for seasurface temperature, zonal wind stress,meridional wind stress, and constrainednet heat flux. The monthly climatologydata for all variables will be located onDisc 6 of the “Atlas of Surface MarineData CD-ROM” collection. The weeklyclimatology data for all variables will belocated on Discs 7, 8, and 9 of the col-lection.

AvailabilityTables 1, 2, and 3 show what will

be available in each Atlas volume,supplement, and CD-ROM introducedin this article. Each variable which hasdata on the appropriate atlas/CD-ROMhas a listing. Each atlas volume orsupplement contains parameterizationsfor all the variables listed, although notall of those variables may be plotted inthe atlas volume.

Ordering information for one ormore volumes of the Atlas of SurfaceMarine Data 1994 or the correspondingdata set will be made available via theInternet on the NODC Home Page(URL http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/) orfrom:NOAA/NESDISNational Oceanographic Data CenterUser ServicesNOAA/NESDIS E/OC11315 East-West HighwaySilver Spring, MD 20910-3282Phone: 301-713-3277Fax: 301-713-3302E-mail: [email protected]: http:/www.nodc.noaa.gov/

Interested parties are encouraged torefer to the NODC home page or tocontact the NODC directly in April/May of 1998 for availability.



Robert G. Quayle, Thomas C. Peterson,Alan N. Basist, and Catherine S. GodfreyNational Climatic Data CenterNOAA/NESDIS

On December 8, 1997, the Na-tional Climatic Data Center (NCDC)received a request from the U.S. delega-tion to the Third Session of the Confer-ence of the Parties to the UnitedNations Framework Convention onClimate Change in Kyoto, Japan. Theinformation requested was whether1997 was likely to be the warmest yearon record for the global surface tem-perature, as predicted by the U.K. Me-teorological Office Hadley Centre andthe University of East Anglia. Tom Karlof the NCDC responded to the delega-tion that 1997 appeared to be ap-proaching a record, but that there wasno readily available hard data to verifythis.

A small group at NCDC undertookan exercise to see if, indeed, 1997 waslikely to be the warmest year of thecentury. The notion of a very warm1997 was obvious from the data. Theglobal land station update throughNovember showed global surface landtemperatures to be among the warmestyears of the record, and the sea surfacewas very warm as a result of the ongo-ing record El Niño, but how warm? Toanswer this, NCDC had to work withreadily available data, as no time wasavailable to search for new sources.

Land surface Air Temperatures Land surface Air Temperature (LAT)climatology (at instrument shelterheight) was derived from the GlobalHistorical Climatology Network version2 data set (GHCN, Peterson and Vose,1997). GHCN v.2 includes previouslyunavailable Colonial Era data that fillin data-sparse times and places(Peterson and Griffiths, 1997). All datawere processed via the Climate AnalysisSystem (CAS) developed at NCDC by

David Easterling, Tom Peterson, andPaul Jamason. NWS-CPC providedNCDC with a clean file of current GTSCLIMAT reports. These data were ap-pended to GHCN using an update sys-tem developed by Catherine Godfrey.Cross-matching all stations in the real-time record with the correct GHCNrecords was not a trivial exercise. Theupdate system subjected the most re-cent data to a rigorous quality control(Peterson et al., 1997a).

Russ Vose’s uniqueduplicate preservationscheme preserved theintegrity of the inputdata streams (Petersonand Vose, 1997). TheFirst-Difference areaaveraging techniquethrives on these dupli-cates and maximizedthe global data availablefor analysis (Peterson etal., 1997b). Homogene-ity adjustment proce-dures, developed overseveral years, assured anobjective, reproduciblyhomogeneous time se-ries (Peterson andEasterling, 1994,Easterling and Peterson,1995, Peterson et al.,1997c). In the end, over14,000 individual sta-tion monthly recordsfor 1997 were used inthe analysis to produce5x5 degree grid boxdata that were summa-rized into hemisphericand global averages.

Sea surfacetemperatures

NCDC compiled aglobal record of 5x5degree grid box in situSea Surface Tempera-ture (SST) means byyear through 1996 (Fig-ure 1A) from the excel-lent work of the U.K.Meteorological Officeand MIT: The Global

Ocean Surface Temperature Atlas“GOSTA” (Bottomley et al., 1990+).However, the most timely 1997 datawas needed to give a true century-scaleperspective. Available for the period1982-1997 was the benchmark Na-tional Centers for Environmental Pre-diction–Optimum Interpolation (NCEPOI) blended satellite, ship and buoy SSTdata set, also in 5x5 degree grid boxformat (Figure 1B; Reynolds and Smith,1994). NCDC produced global averages

The NCDC Global Temperature Index

National Climatic Data CenterNOAA/NESDIS151 Patton AvenueAsheville, NC 28801-5001E-mail: [email protected]

Land-air surface and sea surface temperatures indicate 1997 to be century's warmest year

▲ Figure 1. NCDC‘s global record of 5x5 degree boxin situ SST means by year through 1996 (Figure 1A); theNational Centers for Environmental Prediction–OptimumInterpolation (NCEP OI) blended satellite, ship and buoySST data set (Figure 1B).

B

A


▲ Figure 2. A simple linear regression was performed for glo-bal annual mean anomalies for the years 1982-1996, usingNCEP OI SST with respect to 1982-1996 as the independentvariable and Global Ocean Surface Temperature Atlas (GOSTA)SST with respect to 1961-90 as the dependent.

▲ Figure 3. Global mean annual Reynolds SST anomalies(SSTR) were converted to modeled GOSTA-compatible SSTanomalies (SSTM) for each year, 1982-1997, and the newvalues were spliced onto the GOSTA record for the years after1982.

▲ Figure 4. The combined land-air surface temperatures andsea surface temperatures global climatological index; the dataindicates that 1997 was probably the warmest year of the century.

▲ Figure 5. The trends demonstrated by this United Kingdomproduct for global temperatures were in agreement with theNCDC’s global climatological index (Figure 4).


and the accompanying anomaly seriesfrom both data sets. Combining thesetwo SST data sets through 1997, andmerging these with the GHCN was thenext step. To fuse the two SST datasets, a simple linear regression was per-formed for global annual mean anoma-lies for the years 1982-1996, usingNCEP OI SST with respect to 1982-1996as the independent variable and GOSTASST with respect to 1961-90 as depen-dent (Figure 2). The fit was fairly good(r = 0.89) considering that the areas

covered were somewhat different, withGOSTA ship data along shipping lanesonly, but blended NCEP OI data beingvirtually global. Global mean annualReynolds SST anomalies (SSTR) werethen converted to modeled GOSTA-compatible SST anomalies (SSTM) foreach year, 1982-1997, via the regression(1) SSTM (C) = 0.156 + 1.27 SSTR(C),and those new values were spliced ontothe GOSTA record for the years after1982 (Figure 3). For a thorough expla-nation of the various SST data sets, see

Folland et al., 1993.

The Global IndexNCDC now had readily updatable

global LAT and global SST anomaliesthrough November 1997. Since the LATdata set was essentially independentfrom the SSTs (except for some pre-1950 GOSTA adjustments), it was de-cided to treat LATs independently fromSSTs. To combine these data, the LATwere weighted with a coefficient of 0.3


Global Climate, from page 7(since about 30% of the surface of theEarth is land) and the SST with 0.7 (asthe globe is about 70% ocean). It iscalled an index since it is a combina-tion of air and sea temperatures, andignores ice-covered sea. Although thishas the effect of counting the gridboxes twice when both LAT and SSTwere available for the same box, it wasbelieved this would not bias the resultsinordinately because the residual errorsare basically random. (This remains tobe seen and will be a topic of futureresearch). When comparing the result-ing index (Figure 4) to Hansen’s data(www.giss.nasa.gov, documented inHansen and Lebedeff, 1987; Reynoldsand Smith, 1994; Smith et al., 1996),the match was very good (r=0.95) forthe period for which Hansen has aland-ocean product (1950 to thepresent, also using NCEP OI SST). Workbegan on news release, emphasizing theGHCN results, and also stating that thepreliminary global temperature resultswere in agreement with the U.K. (Figure5)—that 1997 was likely the warmestyear this century.

On January 8,1998, when the finalnumbers were produced and NOAApublic affairs completed their work on apress release, Joe Friday, Tom Karl, TomPeterson, and Jim Laver held a pressbriefing at the National Press Club inWashington, D.C. The Global Indexproved to be very popular and presscoverage was at saturation levels. ThePresident and Vice President used thedata in policy briefings and all majornetworks and newspapers covered thestory.

NCDC gained the following learn-ing experiences: Get everything youcan onto the web as soon as you can,including small downloadable datafilesand Celsius - Fahrenheit conversions.When displaying global absolute datavalues (which many clients insist on)rather than anomalies, use 14C (57F) asa global base temperature for every-thing. Changing the base for the index(which has a warmer base temperaturethan the globe as a whole, partly be-cause ice areas are omitted) only con-fused people. NCDC felt a littleuncomfortable with all this, knowingthat numbers tell only a tiny part of avery big, complex climate story. How-ever, the climate issue is an important

issue and it is very rare that a govern-ment agency can bring the matter tothe forefront of the news.

In conclusion, NCDC would like toemphasize that the relative ranking ofthe year’s temperature (in this case thewarmest) is not as important as the factthat the warming trend is continuing.The trend is probably real, as there areseveral other independent indicatorsthat are consistent with the observedtrends (sea level rise, glacier retreat).There is a plausible physical mecha-nism (enhanced greenhouse gas con-centrations in the atmosphere), andthere are numerical models that indi-cate the enhanced greenhouse gas con-centrations are at least partlyresponsible for the observed trend.There are other explanations as well(solar variability, natural climatic vari-ability, etc.), but at least a part of therecent climatic warming is likelyinducedby an enhanced greenhouseeffect resulting from increases in an-thropogenic greenhouse gas concentra-tions. NCDC states that one thing isobvious: the need to do what can bedone to convince the policy makersthat, at the very least, we need to con-tinue monitoring the climate and needto be able to provide more reliable datafor future insertion into these time se-ries.

ReferencesBottomley, M., C. K. Folland, J. Hsiung, R. E.

Newell, and D. E. Parker, 1990: GlobalOcean Surface Temperature Atlas, Meteoro-logical Office, Bracknell, UK and the De-partment of Earth, Atmospheric andPlanetary Sciences Massachusetts Instituteof Technology. Also see: http://www.meto.govt.uk/sec5/CR_div/climate_ index/hadley_ mohsst.html

Easterling, D. R. and T. C. Peterson, 1995: Anew method for detecting and adjustingfor undocumented discontinuities in cli-matological time series. Int. J. Climatol.,15,369-377.

Folland, C. K., R. W. Reynolds, M. Gordon, andD. E. Parker, 1993: A study of six opera-tional sea surface temperature analyses. J.Climate, 6, 96-113.

Hansen, J., and S. Lebedeff, 1987: Globaltrends of measured surface air tempera-ture. J.Geophys. Res. 92, 13,345-13,372.Updated at www.giss.nasa.gov.

Hansen, J., R. Ruedy, M. Sato, and R. Reynolds,1996: Global surface air temperature in1995: Return to pre-Pinatubo level.Geophys. Res. Lett. 23, 1665-1668.

Peterson, T. C. and D. R. Easterling, 1994:Creation of homogeneous compositeclimatological reference series. Int. J.

Climatol., 14, 671-679.Peterson, T. C. and R. S. Vose, 1997: An over-

view of the Global Historical ClimatologyNetwork temperature data base. Bull.Amer. Meteor. Soc., 78, 2837-2849.

Peterson, T. C. and J. F. Griffiths, 1997: Histori-cal African data. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc.,78, 2869-2871.

Peterson, T. C., R. S. Vose, R. Schmoyer, and V.Razuvav, 1997a: Quality control ofmonthly temperature data: The GHCNexperience. Int. J. Climatol., in press.

Peterson, T. C., T. R. Karl, P. F. Jamason, R.Knight, and D. R. Easterling, 1997b: TheFirst Difference Method: MaximizingStation Density for the Calculation ofLong-term Global Temperature Change.J. Geophys. Res. (Atm.), submitted.

Peterson, T. C., D. R. Easterling, T. R. Karl, P. Y.Groisman, N. Nicholls, N. Plummer,S.Torok, I. Auer, R. Boehm, D. Gullett, L.Vincent, R. Heino, H. Tuomenvirta, O.Mestre, T.Szentimre, J. Salinger, E. For-land, I. Hanssen-Bauer, H. Alexandersson,P. Jones, and D. Parker, 1997c: Homoge-neityadjustments of in situ atmosphericclimate data: A review. Int. J. Climatol.,submitted.

Reynolds, R. W. and T. M. Smith, 1994: Im-proved global sea surface temperatureanalyses. J. Climate, 7, 929-948.

Smith, T. M., R. W. Reynolds, R. E. Livezey, andD. C. Stokes, 1996: Reconstruction of historical sea surface temperature using empirical orthogonal functions. J. Climate 9,1403-1420. ■


NODC Hawaii Liaison OfficeUniversity of HawaiiMarine Science BranchNOAA/NESDIS1000 Pope Road, Rm. 316Honolulu, HI 96816E-mail: [email protected]

▲ Figure 1. The “Nighttime Map” as prepared by the U.S. Bureau of the Census clearlyshows the large concentration of population along the U.S. coasts.

LOICZ and NODC share common watersLOICZ program and National Oceanographic Data Center add to knowledge of coastal processes

Patrick CaldwellNODC Liaison for Hawaii andU.S.-affiliated Pacific IslandsNOAA/NESDIS

The Land-Ocean Interactions inthe Coastal Zone (LOICZ) program andthe National Oceanographic Data Cen-ter (NODC) synergistically are openingthe ports to a greater understanding ofour planet’s coastal regime. Global-scaleinvestigations of the open oceans andatmosphere have been given high pri-ority by the international scientificcommunity over the past two decades.The Tropical-Ocean Global-Atmosphere(TOGA) program laid the observationalground work and initiated an immenseincrease of our understanding of large-

scale ocean-atmosphere interaction.While TOGA focused primarily on thetropical oceans, the World Ocean Cir-culation Experiment (WOCE) spreadthe observational network throughoutthe global oceans and has provided anextraordinary snapshot of the behaviorof the oceans during the 1990s througha vast variety of measuring and model-ling schemes. The TOGA and WOCEprograms have concentrated mostly onphysical characteristics of the oceans.

Contemporaneous with WOCE, theJoint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS),has focused on biological and geochem-ical components of ocean-atmosphereinteraction. JGOFS has demonstratedthe colossal role of the oceans in main-taining Earth’s balance of geochemicalproperties through dynamical and bio-logical interactions and has given usclues to the extent of potential green-house warming by means of a betterunderstanding of the ocean’s role incarbon cycling. It is inherently obviousthat the next logical domain of studybe focused on the coastal regimes to

quantify the significance of the fluxesof properties from land into the openwaters. This, of course, is the region ofthe world ocean most affected by bothimmediate human activities at thecoast (Figure 1) and by the hydrological“signal amplification” as land-basedclimate changes are imposed on thecoast. Dealing with this region is theprimary goal of LOICZ. Since the beginning of 1997, theNODC has aimed significant attentionto the task of identifying and acquiringdata from the coastal regimes, buildingthe framework for efficient manage-ment and distribution of a long-termcentral archive, and ensuring the ap-proval of the scientific, educational,commercial, and public coastal oceancommunities through a series of work-shops. One of the conclusions of theseworkshops was the need for coopera-tion and collaboration with large scien-tific research programs.

What is LOICZ? The Land-Ocean Interactions in theCoastal Zone is the core project of theInternational Geosphere-BiosphereProgramme (IGBP) of the InternationalCouncil of Scientific Unions (ICSU)that focuses on the area of the earth’ssurface where land, ocean, and atmo-sphere meet and interact (Pernetta andMilliman, 1995). The general goals ofthis multinational and multidisci-plinary project are to determine at re-gional and global scales: 1) the natureof the dynamical interaction of theland-air-ocean interface; 2) how theseinteractions affect the coastal zones andthe role of the effects on global cycles;3) to assess the anthropogenic influ-ence; and 4) to provide a sound scien-tific basis for sustainability of thecoastal regimes. This ten-year project commenced in1993 with the establishment of theInternational Project Office (IPO) at theNetherlands Institute for Sea Research(NIOZ), Texel. The IPO, through guid-ance of the LOICZ Scientific SteeringCommittee (SSC), coordinates over2000 nationally-funded scientists in130 countries by providing a central



World Wide Web page (http://www.noicz.nl/loicz) and the publication of aquarterly newsletter, which can bedownloaded from their web site. Much of the LOICZ research is beingcarried out by a distributed network ofcoastal zone researchers. NationalLOICZ contacts have been identified inmany countries to provide a linkagebetween national and internationalLOICZ research activities. These peopleprovide a first point of contact for per-sons interested in getting additionalinformation on local and nationalLOICZ research. One of the principal oceanographicelements of LOICZ is the joint JGOFS/LOICZ Continental Margins Task Team(CMTT) which has been established topromote and coordinate research onfluxes across the continental margins(Figures 2 and 3) from land to the openocean. One of the necessary steps ofthis objective is to develop a typologyof coastal regimes to quantify param-eters for models. This involves selectingregions with adequate observationalinformation that have common charac-teristics with other locations that donot. For each type, geochemical prop-erty budgets within adjacent estuariesare defined and fluxes into the coastal


waters are estimated to determine theresulting flux across the shelf and intothe open ocean. These, in turn, willsupport global modeling efforts of vari-ous parameters, such as the highly im-portant carbon cycle. The success of this task requires thedirect availability of and ready access todata and data products derived from avast spectrum of measurements andmodel output. Since the LOICZ pro-

gram does nothave a specificobservationalcomponent, theprogram requiresaccess to existingdata sets, such asfrom the coastalmodules of theGlobal Ocean Ob-serving System(GOOS) or theGlobal OceansEcosystems Dy-namics (GLOBEC)experiment. Thecooperation ofvarious nationaland internationaldata centers andresearch agenciesas well as the openexchange amongindividual scien-tists are crucialconsiderations of

LOICZ scientists. The LOICZ IPO hasinitially approached this task by creat-ing a web page with links to onlinedata sets. However, the program wouldbenefit greatly if a more unified effortwas undertaken for centralizing or link-ing distributed coastal data systems.

The NODC coastal data initiative NODC holds a variety of coastalocean data sets (Hamilton, 1997), al-though primarily of the physicaloceanographic type. Several of thesehave overlap with the open ocean suchas the Profile Database (temperature,salinity, nutrients, and other param-eters measured in the water column at aspecific site and time), the Marine Envi-ronmental Buoy Data set, current mo-tion sets as measured at fixed locationsand from shipboard Acoustic DopplerCurrent Profilers, and remote sensingarchives, such as CoastWatch.

Other data sets are exclusivelycoastal, such as the real-time onlinebeach temperature reports, the CoastalEnvironmental Assessment Data (a se-lection of multi-disciplinary data col-lected in the 1970s and 1980s at a fewspecific sites), and the Joint Archive forSea Level (JASL), a collaboration ofNODC with the University of HawaiiSea Level Center through the support ofthe regional NODC liaison. The JASL isthe largest collection of research qualityhourly, daily, and monthly values from

▲ Figure 2. Coastal shelf regions are highlighted for depths less than 100 m (grey) andbetween 100 and 200 m (black) as derived from the ETOPO5 data set (National Geo-physical Data Center). The depths less than 200 m represent roughly 7.6% of the globalocean, while depths less than 100 m have about 6.5%. These considerations are impor-tant in defining the boundaries of the coastal regime.

▲ Figure 3. The distribution of shelf depths as a function oflatitude also shows the depths less than 100 m (+) to represent amuch greater area than depths between 100 and 200 m (*).About 67% of the world’s shelf lies north of the Equator and86% lies north of 30 S, coinciding closely with the distribution ofhuman populations.

LOICZ, from page 9


The Coast and Geodetic Survey AlbumLibrary presents images in time of the first science agency

Albert E. ThebergeNOAA Central LibraryNOAA/NESDIS/NODCSilver Spring, MD

The NOAA Library, in cooperationwith the NOAA Home Page Design andConstruction Team, is developing aWeb site devoted to historic photo-graphs of the predecessor agencies ofthe National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration. These agencies werethe Coast Survey, the Weather Bureau,and the Bureau of Commercial Fisheriesin their various forms and names. Theywere instrumental in helping developthe infrastructure of modern Americanscience. For instance, the Coast Surveyis the oldest physical science agency inthe United States, having been autho-rized by Congress in 1807. The CoastSurvey and its descendants, which in-clude NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey,the Office of NOAA Corps Operations,

and many other elements ofNOAA, helped in the forma-tion of the Smithsonian Insti-tution, National Institutes ofStandards and Technology,the American Association forthe Advancement of Science,the National Academy of Sci-ences, and the American Geo-physical Union. The goal of this project isto develop three separate fam-ily albums chronicling theaccomplishments, instrumen-tation, methodology, andpersonnel of these organiza-tions. The Coast and GeodeticSurvey Album is the proto-type album and has over3,000 images on line, some ofwhich date back to the 1830s.These images are organized bymajor topics such as Geodesyor Charting and then furtherorganized by category. Byclicking on a category, a pageof ~20 “thumbnails” will beaccessed; a patron can clickon a thumbnail to access alarger image.

Although captions arenot presently available for thelarger images, a database isbeing built that will provideinformation such as photo-graph source, personnel names if iden-tified, ship names, and descriptions ofactivities. The individual images are in.JPEG file format and occupy ~50 kilo-bytes. Much higher resolution .JPEGfiles will be available in the future. The “bread and butter” of the CoastSurvey and Coast and Geodetic Surveywere geodetic operations and nauticalcharting. The geodetic operations werethe foundation of the nautical chartand also much of the civil surveyingconducted in the United States. Assuch, Geodesy is the first section in thealbum. Geodetic operations were mul-tifaceted and included: astronomiclatitude and longitude observations,triangulation work with tower building(Figure 1), base line measurements andobserving angles (Figure 2), topo-graphic work and photogrammetry,

and geodetic leveling (Figure 3), whichestablished mean sea level as the ac-cepted datum for elevations throughoutthe United States and its territories.

Intrinsic to all of these operationswere “Getting There” and “CampingOut.” “Getting There” involved walking,climbing, packing, driving a variety ofmechanically-powered vehicles, sled-ding, riding horses and mules, takingoxcarts, and in general making use ofmost means of conveyance known tohumankind. Particularly interesting are

NOAA Central LibraryNational Oceanographic Data CenterNOAA/NESDIS, E/OC41315 East-West HIghwaySilver Spring, MD 20910E-mail: [email protected]


▲ Figure 1. A group of Coast and Geo-detic surveyors ready to observe anglesfrom a 100’ portable Bilby steel tower inthe Missouri Ozarks, 1934.

▲ Figure 2. Unconventional means were sometimesused to determine elevations. Here a coast surveyorkeeps a tape vertical while being hoisted by a U.S.Coast Guard crane at Anacapa Island, California.


the truck photos beginning in 1913(Figure 4) when there were few gravelroads and fewer paved roads, few ad-equate bridges for automobiles, and fewto no service stations and automobilemechanics. Once the surveyors got totheir destinations, there were usuallyno hotels or restaurants for miles, sothey had to be expert campers. Coastsurveyors (Figure 5) lived primarily intent camps well into the 1930s in thelower 48 states and made use of largetent camps in Alaska well into the1950s. Nautical Charting encompasses“Ships”, “Boats”, “Soundings”, “Naviga-tion”, “Tides” and other aspects of thebackground work necessary to producea nautical chart. “Ships” includes over250 images of Coast Survey ships dat-ing back to the 1830s (Figure 6) andextends up to modern vessels that arestill active in the NOAA Fleet. The“Boats” photos contain images ofsounding boats and work boats, includ-ing many late nineteenth century andearly twentieth century work vesselsused by the Survey.

“Soundings” includes images ofinstrumentation and the resultingcharts and maps from the time of theleadline, through single-beam elec-tronic sounding, to the modern multi-

beam deepwatersystems that wereused in offshoresurveys within thepast ten years. Ahighlight of thiscollection is theearliest known de-piction of a Coasthydrographic sur-vey crew conduct-ing soundingoperations at Straw-berry Harbor inRosario Straits,Washington, in1857.

Besides Geodesy and Nautical Charting,other major topics within the Coast andGeodetic Survey album are Geophysics,Oceanography, Who Was Who, War Ser-vice, and Coast and Geodetic Sights andViews. Concerning oceanography, the CoastSurvey was perhaps the first organization inthe world to conduct systematic oceano-graphic operations beginning with GulfStream studies in 1845. It was also the firstFederal agency to conduct large-scale geo-physical operations beginning with mag-netic observations in the 1840s, to work onthe development of gravity studies begin-ning in the 1870s, and finally was involvedin the accretion of further geophysical func-tions including seismological observatoriesand field operations in the early 1900s. In the realm of Who Was Who, manyprominent Federal scientists and scienceadministrators are found as well as manylesser known officers and employees of theSurvey. Leaders of the Survey found in thiscollection in-clude nine-teenth centurypersonalitiessuch asFerdinandHassler,Alexander Dal-las Bache, andBenjaminPeirce. Greatscientists andengineers whoseportraits areincluded in theCoast Surveyalbum includeGeorgeDavidson,Charles Schott,

Henry Mitchell, Charles SandersPeirce, Rollin Harris, WilliamBowie, and Charles Whitten.

Surprisingly, many of the mili-tary leaders of the Civil War servedwith the Survey in the ante-bellumyears. On the Union side theseincluded Andrew Atkins Hump-hreys, E. O. C. Ord, John Dahlgren,and David Dixon Porter. Confeder-ate officers who served with theSurvey prior to the war includedJoseph Johnston, Ambrose P. Hill,Richard Ewell, and the “Prince ofthe Privateers,” John Maffitt. In thefirst two-thirds of the twentiethcentury, the Survey was led by anumber of strong personalitiessuch as Ernest Lester Jones,Raymond Stanton Patton, Leo OtisColbert, and H. Arnold Karo,whose portraits are all found in theCoast Survey album.

Images in time, from page 11

▲ Figure 3. The Coast and GeodeticSurvey ran thousands of miles of levelsthroughout the United States to establishelevations relative to sea level. Here acrew is working in a canyon of theSalmon River, Idaho in 1945.

▲ Figure 5. “Getting There”: triangulation party of William Scaifeheaded to boundary markers on the Alaska-Canada border at TwinGlacier, southeast Alaska in 1929.

▲ Figure 4. “Getting There”: a one-and-a-half ton truck out-side Denver, Colorado in 1913.



The National Climatic Data Center(NCDC) has released the Hourly U.S.Weather Observations (HUSWO) CD-ROM, which contains 1990-95 hourlyweather data for 262 National WeatherService locations. It has a map interfaceand station list for data selection, oryou can copy the data files directlyfrom the CD (without using the inter-face). The elements included are: totaland opaque sky cover; temperature anddew point; relative humidity; stationpressure; wind direction and speed;visibility; ceiling height; presentweather; ASOS cloud layer data; snowdepth; and hourly precipitation. Datacan be output in either English or Met-

ric units. A complete user help systemis included, with data format informa-tion and details on usage of the system.

The interface, although not Win-dows-95 based, is quite easy to use.Windows-95 users may need to rebootin DOS mode to have full usage of theCD software. Also, any user may accessthe data directly from the CD-ROMwithout using the software if they pre-fer. We included a booklet with the CDto provide these and other instructions.The map interface and first page/screenof the station list interface are shown inFigure 1.

You may order this CD-ROMthrough the NCDC web interface at

NCDC releases Hourly U.S. Weather Observations andInternational Station Weather Observations on CD-ROM

▲ Figure 1. Map interface and first screen of station list contained on NCDC‘s newly-released Hourly U.S. Weather Observations (HUSWO) CD-ROM.

URL: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ol/cli-mate/climateproducts.html; via e-mail [email protected]; or phone NCDCat 704-271-4800.

This was a joint project by NCDCand the Environmental ProtectionAgency (EPA). The data will be used bythe EPA in numerous models and re-search projects. It serves as a follow-onto the Solar and Meteorological SurfaceObserving Network (SAMSON) CD-ROM set, which contained 1961-1990data. (Note that HUSWO does not in-clude solar radiation data.)

INSWO CD-ROMNCDC has scheduled a spring 1998

release for the International StationWeather Observations (INSWO) CD-ROM set (six CDs). This CD-ROM willbe Windows-95 based, using a worldwide web-type map interface. Thedataset includes hourly and/or synoptic(every three hours) climatic data for1500 international stations for 1982-1997. It provides excellent worldwidecoverage of city locations, includingU.S. stations. The dataset was designedand stations selected for the AmericanSociety of Heating, Refrigerating, andAir-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).The 1982-1993 version was used todevelop the climatological tables forthe 1997 ASHRAE Handbook of Funda-mentals.

The elements included are: totalsky cover; cloud types by layer; lowestcloud height; ceiling height; tempera-ture and dew point; sea level pressure;altimeter setting; wind direction, speed,and gust; visibility; three-hour pressurechange; present weather; and pastweather. You can check on availabilityof the CD-ROM set at the web addressshown above, by e-mail to [email protected], or by calling 704-271-4800—during or after April 1998.

—Neal LottNational Climatic Data Center

Climate ServicesNOAA/NESDIS

151 Patton AvenueAsheville, NC 28801-5001

E-mail: [email protected] ■


LOICZ, from page 10

Surface Marine Atlas, from page 11Acknowledgments

This research has been supported by NSFgrants ATM 9310959 (Tsonis/CCY) and ATM9215811 (AMdS/CCY) and by NOAA’s Climateand Global Change Program (SL/CCY). Thiswork was concluded after A. da Silva joined theData Assimilation Office of NASA’s GoddardSpace Flight Center; the support of R. Rood isacknowledged. The data sets and productsrepresented by this atlas are for distributioninternationally, without restriction.

ReferencesLarge, W., and S. Pond, 1982: Sensible and

latent heat flux measurements over theocean. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 12, 464-482.

Levitus, S., R. Burgett and T. P. Boyer, 1994:

World Ocean Atlas 1994, Volume 3: Salin-ity. NOAA Atlas NESDIS 3, U.S. Depart-ment of Commerce, NOAA, NESDIS.

da Silva, A. M., C. C. Young and S. Levitus,1994: Atlas of Surface Marine Data 1994. 5volumes. NOAA Atlas NESDIS 6-10. U.S.Department of Commerce, NOAA, NESDIS.

da Silva, A. M., C. C. Young-Molling, and S.Levitus, 1997: Atlas of Surface Marine Data1994 Supplement B: Procedures for the 1/2degree x 1/2 degree data set. NOAA AtlasNESDIS 14. U.S. Department of Com-merce, NOAA, NESDIS.

Slutz, R. J., S. J. Lubker, J. D. Hiscox, S. D. Woo-druff, R. L. Jenne, D. H. Joseph, P. M.Steurer and J. D. Elms, 1985: COADS,Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere DataSet, Release 1. Climate Research Program,Environmental Research Laboratory, Boul-

der, CO. 262 pp.Woodruff, S. D., S. J. Lubker, K. Wolter, S. J.

Worley and J. D. Elms, 1993: Comprehen-sive Ocean Atmosphere Data Set(COADS) Release 1a: 1980-92. EarthSystem Monitor 4:1.

Young-Molling, C. C., A. M. da Silva and S.Levitus, 1997a: Atlas of Surface MarineData 1994 Volume 6: Heat flux sensitivityto sea surface temperature. NOAA AtlasNESDIS 12. U.S. Department of Com-merce, NOAA, NESDIS.

Young-Molling, C. C., A. M. da Silva and S.Levitus, 1997b: Atlas of Surface MarineData 1994 Supplement A: Anomalies ofdirectly observed quantities and surfacemarine fluxes for 1990-1993. NOAA AtlasNESDIS 13. U.S. Department of Com-merce, NOAA, NESDIS. ■

over 350 sites globally (Caldwell andMerrifield, 1997).

Although the NODC’s holdings aresignificant, a large number of coastaldata sets remain at large within thecontrol of other national, state, andlocal agencies as well as various re-search organizations affiliated withuniversities, beneficiary arrangements,or private consulting firms. These repre-sent a diverse collection of informationon a variety of temporal and spatialscales and among the various disci-plines. The NODC director, Dr. HenryFrey, has given very high priority toresolving how best to approach thecoastal oceanographic data manage-ment issue. One of his first steps was to listen tothe needs of the coastal oceanographiccommunity. In March of 1997, over100 scientists attended the first NODCCoastal Data Workshop (NOAA, 1997)to share experience pertinent to theNODC’s approach to the prioritization,archival, and management of coastaldata and information. The responsewas tremendous and a list of recom-mendations was compiled for variousaspects related to data acquisition, qual-ity control, management, products, anddistribution. As a follow-up, workinggroups were assembled in October 1997(NODC, 1997) to focus on these recom-mendations. One of the conclusions ofthis workshop was the need to collabo-rate with large research programs.

Mutual support The cooperation between LOICZ

and NODC provides great benefit toeach. NODC has offered help withthree primary activities: 1) exposure ofthe LOICZ program through publica-tions such as the Earth System Monitor;2) links to the LOICZ web site from theNODC home page (under construc-tion); and 3) acquisition, management,and distribution of global multidisci-plinary coastal data.

Assistance is also being provided bythe NODC Hawaii-based liaison, Mr.Patrick Caldwell, through collaborationwith Dr. Stephen V. Smith, who is co-chairman of the LOICZ CMTT, a mem-ber of the LOICZ SSC, and a professorwithin the School of Ocean and EarthScience and Technology at the Univer-sity of Hawaii. The NODC presentlyserves LOICZ as a resource of data andinformation through the existingarchive and as a link to the otherNOAA national data centers. NODC’s initiative of coastal datamanagement can be greatly supple-mented through the scientific guidanceof the LOICZ. Scientific overview inthe development of an archive systemis essential for many reasons, such asthe determination of which data andmetadata are critical for saving, themaintenance of sufficient significantfigures of the values, guidelines forquality control, the organization of thisinformation in the most logical way forefficient storage and retrieval, and sug-gestions of desirable products. TheLOICZ scientist can also be a valuableresources for contributions of data tothe NODC or for referrals to other dataholders.

By the year 2010, of the 20 predictedmegacities, all but one will be in thecoastal regime. The increased popula-tion will create greater stress on theenvironment and require definitivescientific guidance if sustainable devel-opment is to be a priority. Moreover,scientists are struggling to understandthe important role of the ocean as acarbon sink for estimating global cli-mate change. The LOICZ program andthe NODC are both striving to supportthese tremendously important chal-lenges, and by working together, have amuch greater chance of success.

ReferencesCaldwell, P. and M. Merrifield, 1997. Research

quality data holdings of the University ofHawaii Sea Level Center: August 1997.JIMAR Publication 97-312, SOEST-97-04,University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu,HI 96822. 44 p.

Hamilton, D., 1997. Inventory of U.S. CoastalOcean Data: Summary of Data Sets Avail-able from the U.S. National OceanographicData Center (NODC). Unpublished Report.NOAA/NESDIS/NODC, Silver Spring, MD.

NOAA, 1997. Final Report from the NOAACoastal Ocean Data Workshop, March 11-13, 1997. Unpublished Report. NOAA/NESDIS/NODC, Silver Spring, MD. (http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/NODC-coastal/wkshp.html).

NODC, 1997. Minutes from the NOAA CoastalOcean Data Working Group, October 28-31, 1997. Unpublished Report. NOAA/NESDIS/NODC, Silver Spring, MD. (http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/NODC-Wnew/wghomepa.html).

Pernetta, J. C. and J. Milliman, 1995. Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal ZoneImplementation Plan. IGBP Report No. 33,Stockholm. 215 pp. ■


Data productsand services

CONTACT POINTS

National Climatic Data Center (NCDC)704-271-4800

Fax: 704-271-4876E-mail: Climate Services - [email protected] Satellite Services -

[email protected]: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/

National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC)303-497-6419

Fax: 303-497-6513E-mail: [email protected]

WWW: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/

National Oceanographic Data Center(NODC)

301-713-3277Fax: 301-713-3302

E-mail: [email protected]: http://www.nodc.noaa.gov

NOAA Environmental Services Data Directory

301-713-0572(Gerry Barton)

Fax: 301-713-1249E-mail: [email protected]

WWW: http://www.esdim.noaa.gov/#data-products

NOAA Central LibraryReference Services:

301-713-2600Fax: 301-713-4599

E-mail: [email protected]: http://www.lib.noaa.gov/

SXI data meeting with SECThe National Geophysical Data

Center’s (NGDC) Dr. Herbert W. Kroehland Mr. Daniel C. Wilkinson met withEnvironmental Research Laboratory/SpaceEnvironment Center’s (SEC) staff to ini-tiate a cooperative plan for the archival,processing, and dissemination of datafrom the Solar X-ray Imager (SXI) instru-ment to be flown on GOES (Geosynchro-nous Operational Environmental Satellite)in the near future. SXI data will recordboth the spatial and time series evolutionof solar activity such as coronal holes,coronal mass ejections, and solar flares.SEC will use these data in real-time tofacilitate space weather alerts and warn-ings. NGDC will maintain the long-termarchive of these data for research andmodeling purposes. Issues of storage me-dia, formats, products, and calibrationwere discussed.Contact: NGDC

Bathymetric data provided toNOAA Tsunami Group

The National Geophysical Data Cen-ter (NGDC) has provided the office ofTsunami Inundation Mapping Effort(TIME) with several important bathymet-ric data sets. A research component of theNOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Lab(PMEL), TIME is a relatively new office,officially dedicated in May 1997. Themain purpose of the office is to assist theU.S. Pacific States in the development ofmaps identifying areas of potential tsu-nami flooding. The high resolutionmultibeam data sets, the National OceanSurvey Hydrographic Surveys on CD-ROMand the Marine Trackline Geophysics CD-ROMs will be used to construct both un-structured (finite element) and structured(finite difference) grids, which will beused in computer models. Accuratebathymetry data are essential to the suc-cess of this project, and NGDC has pro-vided TIME with the highest quality dataavailable for the majority of the coast ofthe U.S. Pacific States.Contact: NGDC

NCDC Products and ServicesGuide updated

The National Climatic Data Center(NCDC) has updated its Products andServices Guide. This update is rather ex-tensive, especially for the World WideWeb portion, and now includes high-lighted sections of all NCDC on-line sys-tems. The new guide is 103 pages longvs. 60 pages for the previous version.Contact: NCDC

Global Tropical Cyclone Climatol-ogy Data Base

The Global Tropical Cyclone Clima-tology data base, has been updatedthrough 1996 for the four NorthernHemisphere Tropical Storm Basins andthrough 1996-1997 for the two SouthernHemisphere Basins. The data can be ob-tained from the National Climatic DataCenter.Contact: NCDC

Greenland Digital SAR Mosaicand Elevation Map available

The National Snow and Ice DataCenter (NSIDC) has announced the avail-ability of the Digital SAR Mosaic and El-evation Map of the Greenland Ice Sheet.This CD-ROM combines the most detailedsynthetic aperture radar (SAR) image mo-saic available with the best current digitalelevation model (DEM) of the ice sheet.Further, the CD-ROM comes with soft-

ware to enable quick viewing of the data.This characterization of the ice sheet pro-vides a reference against which futurechange can be measured. Changing con-ditions resulting from climatic variationshould show up as changes in the icemargin and shifts in the hydrologic zones.It is hoped that the standard referenceprovided by this data can facilitate activi-ties aimed at change detection and pro-mote other work aimed at understandingthe processes operating on the ice sheet.

The data set is available at no charge,but for research-oriented purposes only. Asigned research agreement must be re-ceived before the data can be shipped. Acopy of the research agreement is avail-able on the WWW from the NSIDC datacatalog at URL: http://www.nsidc.colo-rado.edu/NSIDC/CATALOG/ENTRIES/nsi-0052.html under “data documentation”.Contact: NSIDC

NCDC announces new productsavailable online

The National Climatic Data Center(NCDC) has recently released several newor updated climatological products. Allare accessible via the NCDC home page(http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov) or at the spe-cific addresses shown below:• Web page describing the January 6-9eastern U.S./Canada ice storm and flood-ing. Includes short narrative, radar/satel-lite images, and other pertinentinformation, and can be accessed directlyvia: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ol/reports/weather-events.html• Version 5 of the Global Summary ofDay (1994-present) Dataset. Includes 18daily climatic elements for about 8000stations; accessible via: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ol/climate/online/gsod.html• SSM/I monthly image products, forsurface wetness, surface temperature, andsnow cover, derived/modeled from DMSPdata. Accessible via: http://www5.ncdc.noaa.gov/plwebapps/plsql/ssmimain• Complete review of the global climateof 1997, one of the warmest years of thecentury, accessible via: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ol/climate/research/1997/climate97.html• “Climate Change and Weather Ex-tremes” web page which includes links torelated reports, data, images, and naturaldisaster information and bulletins. Acces-sible via: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ol/climate/climateextremes.htmlContact: NCDC


Address C

orrection Requested

OFFIC

IAL BU

SINESS

Penalty for Private Use $300

40

U.S. D

EPA

RT

MEN

T O

F CO

MM

ERC

EN

ation

al Ocean

ic and

Atm

osp

heric A

dm

inistratio

nPublication D

istribution Facility1315 East-W

est Highw

aySilver Sp

ring, MD

20910-3282A

TTN: Earth System

Monitor

War Service photos are also of his-toric interest insomuch as the role ofthe Coast Survey and Coast and Geo-detic Survey was very important in themajor wars of the United States, begin-ning with the Civil War. The WorldWar II collection is particularly interest-ing with pictures of artillery survey op-erations and pictures of the major Coastand Geodetic Survey vessels that sawwartime service. Survey work accom-plished by Coast and Geodetic Surveyofficers was a major factor in U.S. Armyand Marine artillery success duringWorld War II.

Of those Coast and Geodetic Surveyvessels serving with the armed forces,the Hydrographer was the first UnitedStates vessel to enter Massacre Bay onAttu and led the transports and majorcombatant vessels into the harbor; theOceanographer saw service in theSolomons and hydrographers off thisvessel named Ironbottom Sound; andthe Pathfinder survived over 50 bombingraids between Guadalcanal andOkinawa, was hit by a kamikaze atOkinawa, and conducted postwar sur-veys of Tokyo Bay. It was said that the“road to Tokyo was paved with Path-finder charts.” The album ends with “Coast andGeodetic Sights and Views”: images ofthe coastlines of America; sights at theports and islands visited by Coast and

Geodetic surveyors; humorous viewsthat transcend time including an 1850cartoon by a brother of HenryWadsworth Longfellow; and oceanviews. The album, taken as a wholegives a view of the life of an organiza-tion; the sort of people that comprisedits field and office personnel; and itsaccomplishments. Anyone who perusesthis album can only go away with a feel-ing of respect for those who surveyedAmerica and its waters. The Coast and Geodetic Survey Al-bum can be accessed through the NOAACentral Library home page at http://www.lib.noaa.gov/ through the photocollection or directly at http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/lb_images/theb/histcoll.htm.Complementary sites include the NOAAHistorical Map and Chart Collectionthat was developed by the Office ofCoast Survey and the Bibliography ofthe Appendices of the Coast and Geo-detic Survey Annual Reports from 1844-1910. Both of these sites are accessiblethrough the NOAA Central Libraryhome page or at http://chartmaker.ncd.noaa.gov/ocs/text/map-coll.htm for themaps and charts and at http://www.lib.noaa.gov/edocs/cgsreports.html for thebibliography. Future related sites willinclude Voices from the Past and Talesfrom the Survey. ■

Images in time, from page 12

▲ Figure 6. The “Ships” section of the Coast Geodetic Survey Album includes over 250images of Coast Survey ships dating back to the 1830s.

Documents

New volumes planned for release in the Atlas of …NODC Ocean Climate Laboratory In 1994, the National Oceanographic Data Center began to publish the 5-volume Atlas of Surface Marine