ISLSCP II CRU05 Climate Time Series (1986-1995) for Global Land Areas File Name Convention ################################################################################ There are 13 data files in this data set which includes 12 compressed (*.zip files) and 1 changemap file. The data files are named using the following convention: cru5_variable_Xdeg.zip where: cru5 - identifies these data as CRU version 5. variable - is the climate variable name, one of the following six variables: cloud_covr, diurnal_tmp, precip, temp_mean vapor_pres, wetday_frq. Xdeg - is 1deg for 1.0 degree, or hdeg, for 0.5 degree spatial resolution in both latitude and longitude. The 0.5 degree data files (hdeg) also contain differences files (*.dif), which have the points in the original 0.5 degree files that did not match the ISLSCP Initiative II Land/Water mask. The 13 data files within this data set are for the time peroid January 1986 (198601) through December 1995 (199512). The 1 degree (1d) files, contain 120 *.asc files when extrapolated, while the one-half degree (hdeg) files contain 240 files (120 *.asc and 120 *.dif). The 12 *.zip files and the 1 *.asc file are named as follows: 1. cru5_cloud_covr_1d.zip 2. cru5_cloud_covr_hdeg.zip 3. cru5_diurnal_tmp_1deg.zip 4. cru5_diurnal_tmp_hdeg.zip 5. cru5_precip_1deg.zip 6. cru5_precip_hdeg.zip 7. cru5_temp_mean_1deg.zip 8. cru5_temp_mean_hdeg.zip 9. cru5_vapor_pres_1deg.zip 10. cru5_vapor_pres_hdeg.zip 11. cru5_wetday_frq_1deg.zip 12. cru5_wetday_frq_hdeg.zip 13. cru5_climate_hd_changemap.asc Climate Variable Listing ------------------------ Monthly Climate Time Series (1986-1995) Variable Abrev. Variable --------------- -------- cloud_covr Cloud cover diurnal_tmp Diurnal temperature range precip Precipitation temp_mean Mean temperature vapor_pres Vapor pressure wetday_frq Wet day frequency ################################################################################ ASCII Data Format ----------------- All of the files in the ISLSCP Initiative II data collection are in the ASCII gird, or text format. The file format consists of numerical fields of varying length, which are delimited by a single space and arranged in columns and rows. The half-degree files have 720 columns by 360 rows. The 1.0 degree files have 360 columns by 180 rows. These files are all gridded to a common equal-angle lat/long grid, where the coordinates of the upper left corner of the files are located at 180 degrees W, 90 degrees N and the lower right corner coordinates are located at 180 degrees E, 90 degrees S. Data in the files are ordered from North to South and from West to East beginning at 180 degrees West and 90 degrees North.