This file contains a number of hyperlinks to website of organisations, programmes, activities, datasets and reports that may be of interest to climate researchers. If not yet clickable, please search with your favourite search engine.

( This is a concise version. An older and longer version can be obtained here.)
 

A. Climate Monitoring

B. Climate Modelling

The website of KNMI contains information on climate and climate change (in Dutch) aimed at a general public. See, e.g., factsheet
 
 

CLIMATE MONITORING

Contents

1. Global parent organisations

2. Coordination: research and monitoring programmes

 4. Data centres

 5. Analysed datasets

  * * * * *

1. Global Parent Organisations

United Nations(Contains an alphabetic WEB Site Locator for the UNITED NATIONS System of Organizations)

Of special interest are

- WMO (World Meteorological Organization), in particular its major programmes
  (older WMO homepage)

- UNESCO / IOC (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization / Intergovernmental Oceanic Commission)

- UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change)

- UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme)

* * *

All of these bodies represent governments. In addition,

ICSU (International Council for Science) plays a role. ICSU is a non-governmental organization and was founded in 1931 to bring together natural scientists in international scientific endeavour. ICSU co-sponsors research and observational programmes such as WCRP, GCOS, GOOS. It does not sponsor IPCC.
 
 

2.1 Global research and monitoring programmes

WMO:

WWW (World Weather Watch)

Atmospheric Research and Environment Programme and the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW)

co-ordinates and stimulates research on the composition of the atmosphere, the physics and chemistry of clouds, weather modification techniques, tropical meteorology processes and weather forecasting, focusing on extreme weather events and socio-economic impacts. In addition it co-ordinates the global monitoring of greenhouse gases, the ozone layer, major atmospheric pollutants, and urban environment and meteorological studies

WMO:

Applications of Meteorology Programme

World Climate Research Programme

The Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) was established in 1992 to ensure that the observations and information needed to address climate-related issues are obtained and made available to all potential users.

Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS)

Operational elements of GOOS (see section 3)

International Geosphere Biosphere Programme
is concerned with physical, chemical and biological aspects of the "earth system". It is structured in projects focussing on different subsystems, and crosscutting projects (See also PAGES for the paleo component , and GAIM for the modelling component)

* * *

Earthwatch is an attempt of UNEP to coordinate between observational programmes and programmes with an observational component, such as CEOS, WCRP, IGBP, IGFA, FAO, IOC, ICSU, GCOS, GOOS, GTOS . This has resulted in an Integrated Global Observing Strategy (IGOS),

IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) is a panel jointly established by WMO and UNEP. The role of the IPCC is to assess the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of the risk of human-induced climate change. It does not carry out new research nor does it monitor climate related data.
 
 

2.2 Regional research and monitoringprogrammes

Europe

EUMETNET (consortium of agencies)

EUMETSAT

EUROGOOS
 

3. Data collection programmes/networks

(Typical oceanic instruments/platforms): XBT, CTD, VMADCP, hydrography, moored and drifting buoys, PALACE/ARGO floats, Sea level gauges (SSH), altimeters (SSH), scatterometer (surface wind))

See also the links provided by WMO: Access to global climate montoring systems

Global

WWW (World Weather Watch) (WMO)

TAO netwerk: SST, XBT, wind

4. Data centres

See also links provided by WMO: Links to Environmental Data and Processing Centres

++ = very well organized and very easy to get at the data

+ = well organized and easy to get at the data

+ Climate Diagnostics Center (CDC) [NOAA]

The mission of CDC is to identify the nature and causes of climate variations on time scales ranging from a month to centuries. The goal of this work is to develop the ability to predict important climate variations on these time scales. This site contains information on research and a large variety of weather and climate products (including a number of El Niño animations).

CRU

Various datasets (surface temperature and pressure, North Atlantic Oscillation Index, Southern Oscillation Index, etc)

Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN)

The Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) is a comprehensive global surface baseline climate data set designed to be used to monitor and detect climate change. Comprised of surface station observations of temperature, precipitation, and pressure, all GHCN data are on a monthly basis. GHCN is produced jointly by the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the National Climatic Data Center. To obtain the CO2 record from Mauna Loa

• go to Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center
• click on Carbon cycle
• click on SIO air sampling network
• click on Mauna Loa
• click on graphics

The Global Observing System Information Center (GOSIC) provides information on the observing requirements, the operational data systems, and the access procedures for finding and obtaining data and products of the G3OS. very comprehensive but not easy to get at the data.

The Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC)

Contains data on monthly mean precipitation

+ IPCC Data Distribution Centre

Contains a useful visualisation facility with both observed and modelled time series and fields of (e.g.) temperature change

JCOMM product bulletin

Contains of the available JCOMM data products, updated continuously.

+ + LDEO/IRI

The IRI/LDEO Climate Data Library contains a wide variety of earth science data, primarily oceanographic and atmospheric datasets. The Introduction to Climate Data picks out a few of the most generally interesting datasets (such as ENSO monitor, historical temperature and precipitation, ocean climatology), and the Data Library Overview shows some of the many ways the data can be accessed and manipulated. The Data Viewer will let you explore the dataset of your choice. (As an example try these +++ animations +++ )

+ + Ocean Analyses (BMRC)

BMRC has been running an ocean subsurface analysis system routinely since 1988. A selection of past SST and subsurface ocean analyses are available on this site.

+ National Climate Data Center (Asheville)

The world's largest archive on Weather Data. Contains separate section on climate data and climate monitoring Also contains World Data Center-A for Meteorology and the TOGA COARE Data Information System

++ National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC)

This Center contains a wide range of oceanographic data. Very comprehensive. Examples:

1. Go to World Ocean Atlas; click on WORLD OCEAN ATLAS 1998 FIGURES; click on WOA98F Interactive Image Access; select variable, depth and figure type (objectively analyzed climatological mean, for example) and click on "Show map".
2. Select one of the online data and projects, such as Monthly Sea Surface Temperature Animations

+ Seasonal to Interannual Earth Science Information Partner (SIESIP) at George Mason University

The Seasonal to Interannual Earth Science Information Partner (SIESIP) at George Mason University has put together this collection of links to climate and related data sets. The main way to search data is through specific geophysical parameter. Under each parameter, all datasets are sorted by data center. Clicking on a link will take you to the data set description (readme file or description web page).

++ WOCE Data Information

The WOCE data management structure is an internationally distributed system which utilizes the expertise of scientists to attain the highest possible data quality and documentation.

++ World Data Center for Paleoclimatology (WDC-A, NOAA/Boulder) [Achievement of PAGES]

Gives access to climate reconstructions (papers) but also to individual data sets organized by type (pollen, borehole, corals, etc).

Other useful sites

DEOS (useful site containing altimetric observations (T/P en ERS)}

European Climate Assessment 2000 web site

Global Change Master Directory (Kind of search machine)

Global Digital Sea Ice Data Bank

Joint Archive for Sea Level data

KNMI Climate Explorer (Provides powerful tool for finding statistical relations between different kinds of climate data)

List of climate data websites (LDEO/IRI)

Open University (List of links by Darco Jansen)

WMO Info-Clima (no data, but comprehensive overview of existing datasets, including KNMI-klimaatdata). WMO Info-Climate is part of the WMO Climate Data and Monitoring Programme, which has useful links)

Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) of NASA (Has global ozone concentrations as determined by TOMS)

5. (Analysed) datasets

See also links provided by WMO: WMO Distributed Databases Climate Datasets

COADS

Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set Contains monthly gridded ocean surface parameters (1854 - 1992) in 2 X 2 deg long lat boxes. COADS data are also available through LDEO/IRI. To obtain a plot of the data

• select type (mean, for example)
• select variable (sea surface temperature, for example)
• click on one of the view options

Monthly gridded wind stresses over the Tropical Pacific (1960 -2000), prepared at Florida State University (composite of COADS and scatterometer) . Contains pseudo-stress (magnitude times components of the wind) with 2 X 2 deg lat long resolution in the domain: 30N-30S, 120E-70W. To obtain a plot select the month of your choice and choose between mean and anomaly.

These data can also be viewed through FSU winden (LDEO/IRL). To obtain a plot

• select type of average (FSU anom, i.e. anomalies, for example)
• select variable (zonal wind stress for example)
• click on one of the view options

Contains weekly SST's (1981 - 2000). Also available as animation. Animations can be made with the LDEO/IRI viewer by simply inserting the word "to" between intial and final data and clicking on redraw.

Jones and Parker (UEA/CRU)

The Jones dataset (historical observations, land and sea; monthly averages since 1856). Scroll down to obtain a time series of annual hemispheric and global mean temperatures. The full dataset can most easily be viewed from Jones which is a copy at LDEO/IRI. To obtain a plot of the anomalies (from 1961 - 1990)

• select landonly (Jones) or landsea (Jones and Parker)
• select variable (t_air for example)
• click on one of the view options

Climatology of the ocean interior based on half a million profile measurements, prepared by Sydney Levitus of NODC and available through LDEO/IRI. To obtain a plot of the data

• select type of average (annual, for example)
• select variable (temp, i.e. temperature, for example)
• click on one of the view options

Reanalysis products from NCEP

This dataset is a composite of all relevant atmospheric observations (1957 - 1996). To create a plot

• click here
• select a subdivision (pressure level data, or surface fluxes, for example)
• select a variable (air temperature, for example)
• click on "create a plot"

Reynolds SST

Composite of COADS/VOS and satellites (through The Seasonal to Interannual Earth Science Information Partner (SIESIP) at George Mason University from CDC). To obtain a plot

• click on Reynolds SST
• click on Sea Surface Temperature
• select a statistic (monthly mean, for example) and click on the adjacent "Make a plot"
• select your options (recommended: plot on a white background; fill/shade)
• click on create plot

Monthly averaged Sea Surface Height Anomalies (from October 1992) from LDEO/IRI. To obtain a plot

• select a variable (Sea Surface Height Anomaly, for example)
• click on one of the view options

* * *

Exercise: establish the linkages.

For example:  The United States Voluntary Observant Ship (VOS) program is organized for the purpose of obtaining weather and oceanographic observations from moving ships. VOS is an international program under the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) auspices, which itself is fostered by the United Nations. Observations are taken by deck officers, coded in a special format known as the ships synoptic code, and transmitted without delay (realtime) to the National Weather Service. They are then distributed on national and international circuits for use by meteorologists in weather forecasting, by oceanographers, ship routing services, fishermen, and many others. The observations are forwarded to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in Asheville, North Carolina, and have been used to establish the COADS dataset.
 
 

B. CLIMATE MODELLING

1. Model documentation

ECMWF Model & Assimilation scientific documentation

CMIP tabellen
 

2. Information about predictions

ECMWF Ensemble Weather Prediction

Seasonal Forecasting at ECMWF

Decadal predictions, e.g. of the North Atlantic Oscillation (see the NAO website of David Stephenson; click on forecasts)

Centennial forecasts for different emission/forcing scenarios. See e.g. the CLIVAR site, or IPCC or the Hadley Centre.

3. Access to models

Model Support group of the Netherlands Centre for Climate Research (CKO = IMAU/KNMI/RIVM).

NCAR Community Model

CGAM (Un Reading)

4. Examples of "regional" programmes

Climateprediction.com : an attempt at distributed climate ensemble simulation on pc

Japan: Frontier Research System for Global Change Prediction (FRSGCP)

Japan: Earth Simulator This is not a very useful website. Look also e.g. at Tani's Berkeley presentation. Information given by the Japanes Earth Observation research Centre ( NASDA ) is also not very revealing.

United States: Accelerated Climate Prediction Initiative (ACPI)

Europe: PRISM: PRogramme for Integrated earth System Modelling

5. International coordination

JSC/CLIVAR Working Group on Coupled Climate Modelling has the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) as on of its main acitvities.
 
 

Gerbrand Komen, 29 March 2006