The ORNL DAAC announces the release of two data sets from the Hydrology, Soils, and Topography category associated with the International Satellite Land-Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP).
ISLSCP II Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) Monthly Precipitation . Data set prepared by B. Rudolf, U. Schneider, and D. Landis. This rain gauge-only data set was acquired from the GPCC and resampled to a 0.5 degree longitude by 0.5 degree latitude grid for use in the ISLSCP Initiative II.
ISLSCP II UNH/GRDC Composite Monthly Runoff . Data set prepared by B. Fekete and C.J. Vorosmarty. This data set combines simulated water balance model runoff estimates derived from climate forcing with monitored river discharge. It can be viewed as data assimilation applied in a water balance model context (conceptually similar to the commonly used 4DDA techniques used in meteorological modeling).
International Satellite Land-Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP)
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, 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.