The ORNL DAAC announces the release of two new data sets and two revised data sets from Phase 2 of the Vegetation/Ecosystem Modeling and Analysis Project (VEMAP).
"VEMAP 2: U.S. Annual Climate, 1895-1993" and "VEMAP 2: U.S. Annual Climate Change Scenarios" are available on-line for the first time. Together the two data sets provide a climate series from 1895 to about 2100. The historical data set contains annual, monthly, and daily measurements of minimum and maximum temperature, precipitation, vapor pressure, and solar radiation. The climate change scenarios were based on experiments with coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation models and reflect time-dependent changes in surface climate.
Revised versions of "VEMAP 2: U.S. Monthly Climate, 1895-1993" and "VEMAP 2: U.S. Monthly Climate Change Scenarios" have been released to replace their earlier counterparts. The new versions present the data and scenarios in a fully gridded format to make them more readily usable.
VEMAP is an international project studying the response of biogeochemical models and vegetation-type distribution models (i.e., biogeographical models) to variability in climate and to other spatial and temporal factors. Phase 1 compared the results of six models under various climate and vegetation scenarios. Phase 2 compares time-dependent ecological responses of models to historical and projected transient scenarios of climate and atmospheric carbon dioxide.
For further information about VEMAP or to order VEMAP data, visit http://www.daac.ornl.gov/VEMAP/vemap.html.