Climatology Interdisciplinary Data Collection (CIDC)

In Autumn 1995, the Goddard Distributed Active Archive Center (GDAAC) compiled the Climatology Interdisciplinary Data Collection (CIDC) to facilitate interdisciplinary studies related to climate and global change. This data collection has been produced in collaboration with the Center for Earth Observing and Space Research (CEOSR), Institute for Computational Sciences and Informatics (CSI), and George Mason University. It was designed for the study of global change, seasonal to interannual climate change, and other phenomena that require from one to dozens of interacting parameters.

A few of the possible study areas are the depletion of stratospheric ozone, the weather changes associated with the periodic El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events, periodic droughts, and global warming. Short background information scenarios are given on the CD for the Monsoon, El Niño, and global warming phenomena.

The CD set also contains read software and the Gridded Analysis and Display System (GrADS).

Data from the scientific disciplines dealing with meteorology and atmospheric sciences, land surface, ocean, cryosphere, biosphere, the Sun, and remote sensing science have been gathered into one place and, where feasible, presented in a common format (monthly means with a 1° x 1° world grid, or commensurable resolution and IEEE 32-bit floating point numbers). Over 70 physical parameters from some 25 separate datasets are represented. The Data Collection Overview document on the CDs lists alphabetically all the physical parameters along with the dataset(s) in which they can be found. It also contains a separate listing of each dataset, its origin, and the parameters included. Each dataset is also accompanied by a detailed user's guide.

The Climatology Interdisciplinary Data Collection (CIDC) has been subdivided into seven categories. The grouping is influenced by the types of physical parameters involved and partially by the way that they are processed. Because of this the same physical parameter may appear in several datasets and in more than one category. When this occurs different algorithms have normally been used to produce the parameter. The included datasets, source, time period covered, their parameters and an abbreviated dataset name are included in the links below.

• Atmospheric dynamics & atmospheric sounding products
• Radiation and clouds
• Biosphere data
• Measured variable atmospheric constituents
• Measured surface temperature and pressure
• Hydrological data
• Remote sensing science

The data on the CD set was collected in a variety of ways, using remote sensing, direct measurements, and model output. The individual datasets were provided in a variety of forms. In some cases this required the data publication team to regrid and reformat datasets and in others to produce monthly averages from finer resolution data. The specific handling for each dataset is detailed in the documentation. The regridded, reformatted, integrated, and peer reviewed datasets are published on this four-volume CD collection

The data are held online at the BADC are public and are made available for browsing purposes. If you want to use the data in earnest you should order a copy of the CD from the contact address below.

• Volume 1: Biosphere, Hydrology, Surface Temperature, Ozone, Greenhouse Gases
• Volume 2: Atmospheric Dynamics
• Volume 3: Radiation and Clouds
• Volume 4: Atmospheric Surroundings

In addition to data, each CD has a section containing documentation, the three climate scenarios, and software. The AAREADME file gives a brief description of the CD contents along with layout, data format, and other useful information. The documentation folder contains Readme User's Guides for each dataset.

The software folder contains decompression software, programmes to read the binary data, and the GrADS analysis programme. The read programmes have the capability of writing the binary data out as an ASCII file. When activated, the GrADS programme can be used to both view and analyse the data.

Note that many of the datasets and this cd-rom are accessible through an FTP anonymous account at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's (GSFC)

The data are mainly held in IEEE 4 byte floating point format (i.e. a binary format) but some small files are in ascii. The GrADS software library (available in the software directory) can be used to read these files.

The documentation on the CD-ROM has been extracted and indexed and made available through this WWW interface. This gives an outline of the project and a description of the datasets.

A list of references has been extracted from the CD-ROM.

You may visit the CIDC homepage.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Kyle, H.L.; McManus, J.M.; Ahmad, S.; Hrubiak, P.L.; Kafatos, M.; Yang, R.; Li, Z. Climatology Interdisciplinary Data Collection (CIDC), [Internet]. Goddard Distributed Active Archive Center (GDAAC), 1997, Date of citation. Available from http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/view/badc.nerc.ac.uk__ATOM__dataent_CIDC.

If you would like to obtain a copy of the CD-ROMs you should contact the Goddard DAAC Help Desk. General queries about these pages or browsing the data should be directed to the BADC support line.