The biophysical parameters were derived from the monthly ISLSCP II FASIR NDVI 
(version 4.13) data set covering the period from 1982 to 1998. The biophysical 
parameters fields included in this data set and their respective field 
descriptor used in the file names (see below) are:

* fapar: Fraction of photosynthetically active radiation absorbed by the green 
  fraction of the vegetation canopy. This parameter is an indication of the 
  photosynthetic capacity of vegetation and is closely related to the NDVI 
  (Monthly).

* tlai: Total leaf area index - The one-sided surface area of all leaves (dead and 
  live) and stem area divided by the ground surface area (Monthly).

* glai: Green leaf area index - The one-sided surface area of all live leaves 
  divided by the ground surface area. The LAI_G replaces the greenness fraction 
  (the ratio of green leaf area index to total leaf area index) that was part of 
  the ISLSCP 1 data collection. Greenness fraction was frequently confused with 
  vegetation cover fraction, this ambiguity is now removed (Monthly).

* rough: Aerodynamic Roughness length (z0)- This parameter represents the height 
  above the ground surface to which the wind can penetrate. It is used to 
  calculate the turbulent transfer between the land surface and the atmosphere 
  (Monthly).

* 0plane: Zero plane displacement (d). This parameter is used in combination
  with z0.

* vcover: Vegetation Cover Fraction - The fraction of ground surface covered by 
  the maximum extent of the vegetation canopy (varies between 0 and 1). This is a 
  fixed field representing the entire period 1982-1998.

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File Name Convention
--------------------
The files in this data set are named using the following naming convention:

                     fasir_descriptor413_xx_YYYYmm.asc

where:
fasir_descriptor413    identifies the data set and the version number (4.13).
descriptor             identifies the particular biophysical field (See above).
xx                     identifies the spatial resolution of the data set where
                       1d, hd, and qd stand for a spatial resolution of 1, 1/2
                       and 1/4 degrees in both latitude and longitude, 
                       respectively.
YYYY                   is the four-digit year from 1982 to 1998.
mm                     is the two-digit month from 01 to 12.

In addition to the monthly biophysical fields, there are three individual files 
called "fasir_vcover413_xx_1982-1998.asc" that contain the vegetation cover for 
the entire period from 1982 to 1998 (i.e. fixed fields). For these files xx is 
as above.

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ASCII File Format
------------------
All of the files in the ISLSCP Initiative II data collection are in the ASCII, 
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. All 
values in these files are written as real numbers. Water bodies are assigned the 
value of -99, missing land data are assigned the value of -88, and permanent ice 
is listed as -77.

The files at different spatial resolutions each contain the following numbers of 
columns and rows:

     One degree: 360 columns by 180 rows 
     1/2 degree: 720 columns by 360 rows 
     1/4 degree: 1440 columns by 720 rows 

All files are 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 hand 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.