CLAUS

Cloud Archive User Service (CLAUS)

Introduction

The CLAUS Project was supported by the European Union under the IVth Framework Programme (Environment and Climate) and ran from April 1997 to December 1999.

The aim of the CLAUS project was to produce a long time-series of three-hourly global window channel thermal infra-red images of the Earth and to test the feasibility of using this in evaluating atmospheric General Circulation Models. The CLAUS archive currently spans the period 1st July 1984 - 31st December 1994. Responsibility for maintaining and updating the CLAUS archive resides with the Environmental Systems Science Centre (ESSC). Because the data are of wider use ESSC are making the CLAUS archive available generally.

The source data used in CLAUS are the level B3 (reduced resolution) thermal infra-red radiances from operational meteorological satellites participating in the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Programme (ISCCP) and were obtained from the NASA Langley Atmospheric Sciences Data Center (LASDC). The nominal waveband used is 10.5 - 12.5 microns, which corresponds to an atmospheric window (the actual wavebands vary slightly amongst satellite sensors). The B3 data and processed to create a uniform latitude-longitude grid (or image) of Brightness Temperature (BT) values at a spatial resolution of 0.5 by 0.5 degrees and temporal resolution of three hours. The BT data are stored in daily composited files (eight images per file). Information at the grid point level about the satellites used in generating each BT image, and the type of interpolation applied, is held in two supplementary quality files.

Availability of data

Data and software supplied to the BADC by ESSC will be stored in the BADC CLAUS archive. These data are available for general use, subject to terms and conditions of use.

Subject to suitable resources being available, the time span of the archive may be extended beyond 1995 as and when ISCCP B3 data become available.

Restricted Data

Access to this data is restricted. In order to gain access to the data, please apply for access to VIRTEM data .

Documentation

Links to further information

Who to contact

If you'd like to know more about the CLAUS data and how to obtain it from the BADC, you should contact us through the BADC support line. For information more directly related to the CLAUS project and for more details on the methodology employed in creating the CLAUS dataset, contact the Project Scientist Dr. Gary J Robinson.

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