The ORNL DAAC announces the release of three data sets within the Snow, Sea Ice, and Oceans category of the International Satellite Land-Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP), Initiative II (ISLSCP II).
- ISLSCP II Sea Surface Temperature. Data set prepared by R. Reynolds and D. Stokes. This data set contains gridded monthly and weekly sea surface temperature (SST), and long term SST monthly climatology.
- ISLSCP II Global Sea Ice Concentration. Data set prepared by R.L. Armstrong and K. Knowles. This data set contains global maps of monthly sea ice concentrations on a global one degree grid based on Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) developed sea ice concentrations.
- ISLSCP II Northern Hemisphere Monthly Snow Cover Extent. Data set prepared by R.L. Armstrong and M.J. Brodzik. This data set shows the extent of snow on the land at a variety of scales (1.0 degree, 0.5 degree, 0.25 degree). It is derived from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) Northern Hemisphere EASE-Grid Weekly Snow Cover and Sea ice Extent product.
The ISLSCP Initiative II data collection is designed to support modeling studies of the global carbon, water and energy cycle. This data collection contains 50 global time series spanning the ten-year period 1986 to 1995 compiled under the guidance of Forrest Hall and colleagues at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The data for Initiative II were acquired from a number of U.S. and international agencies, universities, and institutions, then co-registered to equal-angle grids of one degree, one-half and one-quarter degree resolution and reformatted into a common ASCII format.
The collection includes a variety of remotely sensed data sets ranging from visible to microwave wavelengths. The data sets also include improved topography, surface radiation, near-surface meteorology, precipitation, runoff, soils, and vegetation data sets that can be used in a variety of interdisciplinary research activities. Several data sets to support global carbon and biogeochemical studies are also provided.
The ORNL DAAC is a NASA-funded data center archiving and distributing terrestrial ecology and biogeochemical dynamics data.