NATIONAL CLIMATIC DATA CENTER (U.S.) ON-LINE NEWS   8/10/95


The following is a short review of new and just recently updated
on-line datasets available from NCDC via internet.  They are
accessible by direct ftp and by www/mosaic:

For ftp:  Address is ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov
          Login is 'ftp' or 'anonymous'
          Password is your email address

For www:  Address is http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov
          No login or password needed
          Use mouse to click on menu items


New Dataset - National Weather Service Summary of Day Data:

 - Ftp directory is /pub/data/fsod
 - Also available via www/mosaic, including graphical display
  tools (see 'interactive visualization of climate data')
  for plotting the data
 - Includes all observed elements, such as max/min temperature,
  mean wind speed, peak wind gust, precipitation, snow depth,
  mean dew point, and percentage of possible sunshine
 - Over 1000 historical stations, with over 400 currently active
  stations
 - Generally covers 1948-1995 (updated monthly) for all National
  Weather Service sites + other selected locations
 - 'fsod.README' file describes the data


Updated Dataset - Global Summary of Day Data (* = new feature):

 - Ftp directory is /pub/data/globalsod
 - Also available via www/mosaic
 - 18 elements included, such as mean temperature, max/min
  temperature, mean dew point, mean wind speed, max wind speed,
  mean pressure, mean visibility, precipitation, snow depth
 - Over 8000 global stations--both land and ocean-based, worldwide coverage
 - Over 1000 U.S. stations
 - Occasional special reports/datasets for specific events
 - Currently covers January '94 through June '95 (updated monthly)
* Now available in compressed form for quicker download, as well
  as complete ASCII text files
* Latest month now available in both English and Metric units
* Additional quality control recently incorporated into system
 - Has 'readme.txt' file with complete explanation of dataset
  along with 'gif' image of station locations


Updated Dataset - Monthly Precipitation Data for U.S. Cooperative
and National Weather Service Sites (* = new feature):

 - Ftp directory is /pub/data/coop-precip
 - Also available via www/mosaic
 - Monthly and annual precipitation amounts for all available
  years for each station
 - Over 8000 stations currently active + historical data for
  thousands more currently inactive stations
 - 1948-1994 period, with some data as far back as about 1900
 - Each state in individual ASCII text files
* Complete dataset for all states in 1 compressed file (17 mb)
 - Has 'readme.txt' file with all needed information


If you wish to order data (off line) or a publication, please
contact:

Climate Services Branch
National Climatic Data Center
151 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC  28801
Email:  orders@ncdc.noaa.gov
Phone:  704-271-4800
Fax:    704-271-4876


We sometimes 'reboot' our on-line systems at about 4:00 AM
eastern time, so keep that in mind as you access these datasets.
If you have any technical questions about these on-line data, or
if you encounter access difficulty for more than a day or two,
please contact:

Neal Lott or Tom Ross
NCDC/RCSG
151 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC  28801
Email:  nlott@ncdc.noaa.gov / tross@ncdc.noaa.gov
Phone:  704-271-4995 / 704-271-4994
Fax:    704-271-4876