III.8: Historical Climate Reanalysis Project

Re-launch and expand access to data sets describing past weather

Other Information:

The Historical Climate Reanalysis Project uses a three-dimensional globally-complete climate model and available weather observations to produce output fields of weather variables measured four times daily from 1871, to the present. Using what are often, especially in earlier years, sparse data sets of observations, the Project is able to reconstruct past weather and fill in missing data values around the rest of the globe. These data will be available through a number of different types of Web-based, interactive plotting pages as well as file download. In addition to generating plots, users will be able to conduct basic analyses of data, download subsets of data, and obtain data in Google Earth format, which will permit easy visualization by the general public using the Google Earth application. Currently, the data are available at - 8 - the Physical Sciences Division of NOAA’s Earth Systems Research Laboratory only in “grib” format, which is difficult to read and not available for online plotting and analysis. The complete dataset itself is well over four terabytes, so examining even portions of it requires enormous storage space and computing resources. By enabling the public to work with the data and data products online, NOAA will allow users to examine past weather and climate events in a detailed way never before possible. Version 1 of the Project is available today at www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/20thC_Rean/. It spans, however, only the years 1908 through 1958 and does not include the interactive plotting tools described above. NOAA expects Version 2 to include data for 1891, to the present, provide online plotting and analysis tools, and be available online during the second quarter of calendar year 2010.

Stakeholder(s):

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Indicator(s):

Indicator:1

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