Archive-name: weather-data Last-modified: 1 Jun 1993 Recent changes: ==within last two weeks== ==within last four weeks== Addition of weather forecast info from gopher.fu-berlin.de gopher site Addition of ftp.fu-berlin.de ftp site for Meteosat pictures Addition of Meteosat data on CD-ROM info C O N T E N T S 0. Introduction I. Data available over the Internet II. CD-ROM source list III. Research data on tape and other media IV. Weather-related mailing lists This is a guide to various sources of meteorological, oceanographic, and geophysical data. Some of these data types are intended for enjoyment or hobbyist use; other data are more research-oriented. Much of the research data is not free. If you are reading this document after 22 Jun 1993, you are reading an outdated copy. A current copy can be obtained by anonymous FTP to rtfm.mit.edu, from the (compressed) file weather-data.Z in the directory /pub/usenet/news.answers. A current copy is also maintained in vmd.cso.uiuc.edu in the file wx/sources.doc. These files are updated every two weeks, when a new copy is posted to sci.geo.meteorology, news.answers, and sci.answers. If you can't use FTP, send email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with send usenet/news.answers/weather-data as the only text in the message (leave the subject blank). Corrections, additions, and comments should be sent to Ilana Stern at ilana@ncar.ucar.edu. Please include in your message where you read this document. Note that if I know about it, it's in this document. This article is copyright (c) 1993 by Ilana Stern. It may be freely distributed provided that this copyright notice and the above information on retrieving a current copy are not removed. I prefer that archives maintain current copies, since this information changes rapidly. If you would like to put this article in an archive and want to receive a new copy automatically at every update, please send me email. ######################################################################## Subject: Data available over the Internet Copyright (c) 1993 by Ilana Stern. C O N T E N T S 1. How to use anonymous FTP 2. How to use telnet 3. Index of FTP and Telnet sites by topic A. Current weather images via FTP B. Current weather data via telnet C. Meteorological, oceanographic, and geophysical research data D. Other satellite images E. Map data F. Other stuff G. Special images (may be transient) 4. Alphabetical list of FTP, and Telnet sites, with information 5. Weather and other meteorological data via Gopher 6. Weather and other meteorological data via WAIS 7. Weather and other meteorological data via AFS (Andrew File System) 1. How to use anonymous FTP FTP (File Transfer Protocol) allows transfer of files between two computers which are on the Internet. To access the FTP areas listed here, at your system prompt type "ftp" followed by the name or IP number (the number in brackets next to the system name in the listing below) of the desired system. For example, to access vmd.cso.uiuc.edu you'd type ftp vmd.cso.uiuc.edu or ftp 128.174.5.98 Use "anonymous" as your login and your email address as the password (if requested). [Note: quotes ("like this") are used to set off names of directories and files, or commands you'd type, and are not part of these names.] Not all FTP systems accept the same commands, but here's a list of the most useful: ls list files in the current directory. cd change directory, e.g. "cd wx" changes to the wx directory. binary sets binary mode; USE THIS FOR RETRIEVING IMAGES! ascii sets ascii mode (the default). Use for retrieving text. get retrieves a file, e.g. "get readme" gets a file called readme. bye exits FTP. If you can't FTP from your system, I can't help you -- sorry. If you can use FTP, but can't seem to connect to the site, re-check its description in the document; on the line with the site name it will tell you whether it is an FTP site or a Telnet site. If it's a Telnet site, follow the instructions in the following section instead. 2. How to use telnet Type "telnet" followed by the name or IP number (the number in brackets next to the system name in the listing below) of the desired system. These publicly accessible systems generally allow you to log in but put you in a restricted shell, from which only a certain menu of commands is available. The description for the site will include the login to use. If you can't seem to connect to the site, re-check its description in the document; on the line with the site name it will tell you whether it is an FTP site or a Telnet site. If it's an FTP site, follow the instructions in the previous section instead. 3. Index of FTP and Telnet sites by topic This index lists the names of FTP and Telnet sites of interest, with only a brief blurb as to their contents. Section 4 gives more information about each of these sites. Some sites appear more than once under different subject headings. Some sites have identical contents; please use the site closest to you. A. Current weather images 134.36.22.11 NOAA AVHRR images of Europe ats.orst.edu GOES vis/IR images of North, Central America boa.gsfc.nasa.gov GMS vis/IR images cumulus.met.ed.ac.uk Meteosat vis/IR images of Europe explorer.arc.nasa.gov GMS vis/IR images ftp.fu-berlin.de Meteosat vis/IR images of Europe ftp.netsys.com Full-disk GOES images of Pacific liasun3.epfl.ch Meteosat vis/IR images of Europe marlin.jcu.edu.au GMS-4 images of Australia, TOGA/COARE area plaza.aarnet.edu.au GMS vis/IR images satftp.soest.hawaii.edu SST data from AVHRR on NOAA-11, NOAA-12 spot.colorado.edu Surface maps, radar summaries, vis/ir US unidata.ucar.edu Surface maps (US, Europe, China), soundings uriacc.uri.edu NOAA-11 images of the northeast US vmd.cso.uiuc.edu GOES-7 vis/IR images, surface analyses over US wilbur.stanford.edu Meteosat vis/IR images of Europe, vis/ir US B. Current weather data ats.orst.edu Some US city and Oregon weather forecasts hermes.merit.edu US/Canada weather forecasts, global reports downwind.sprl.umich.edu 3000 US/Canada weather forecasts, global reports ncardata.ucar.edu Colorado weather forecasts tortel.dcc.uchile.cl Chilean weather forecasts (in Spanish) C. Meteorological, oceanographic, and geophysical research data cdiac.esd.ornl.gov Info on climate change topics delocn.udel.edu Info on ocean data available from many sources eosdis.larc.nasa.gov Info on datasets available from EOSDIS glis.cr.usgs.gov Info on datasets available from USGS hurricane.ncdc.noaa.gov Info on datasets available from NCDC nasagiss.giss.nasa.gov Cloud, SST, surface T, vegetation data ncardata.ucar.edu Info on datasets available from NCAR nodc.nodc.noaa.gov Info on datasets, satellites, sensors nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov Info on datasets available from NSSDC storm.ofps.ucar.edu STORM-FEST data D. Other satellite images ames.arc.nasa.gov Various earth-from-space images explorer.arc.nasa.gov Viking, Magellan, Voyager images from CD-ROMs sanddunes.scd.ucar.edu AVHRR images of USA via telnet snow.nohrsc.nws.gov Snow cover maps of US from GOES sseop.jsc.nasa.gov Pictures taken from the space shuttle E. Map data csn.org Mapping software and datasets hanauma.stanford.edu CIA World Bank database, 0.5 deg elev dataset ncardata.ucar.edu Elevation data spectrum.xerox.com Various USGS data F. Other stuff archive.afit.af.mil NORAD "Two-line Element"(TLE) for NOAA sats csn.org Information on other Internet resources cumulus.met.ed.ac.uk Software for computer-aided learning (CALMET) delocn.udel.edu Software for oceanographic computations ftp.met.fsu.edu Data analysis software, Internet resource info ncardata.ucar.edu Script to retrieve vmd.cso.uiuc.edu GIFs vmd.cso.uiuc.edu Documents on weather-related topics G. Special images/data ftp.met.fsu.edu Hurricane Andrew images kihei.idbsu.edu East Coast blizzard movie spot.colorado.edu Hurricane Andrew images sumex-aim.stanford.edu East Coast blizzard movie unidata.ucar.edu Hurricane Hugo images hurricane.ncdc.noaa.gov Data from East Coast blizzard 4. Alphabetical list of FTP and Telnet sites, with information This section provides expanded listings of the sites in the previous section. Remember to set the transfer type to "binary" when retrieving images! 134.36.22.11 (FTP) Dundee University archive; Sun raster images, plus PC display software. Data for the past few years is archived. For information contact Alan Muir (asm@ua.ndu.ac.uk). archive.afit.af.mil (FTP) NORAD "Two-line Element"(TLE) data for the NOAA satellites series in directory " pub/space". ames.arc.nasa.gov [128.102.18.3] (FTP) Change directory to "SPACE/CDROM". Images from Magellan and Viking missions, other stuff. ats.orst.edu [128.193.120.19] (FTP) GOES IR and VIS images over North and Central America, plus a "floater" image which "could be anything." Also Oregon and US city forecasts. boa.gsfc.nasa.gov [128.183.93.16] (FTP) Same GMS images as explorer.arc.nasa.gov; this site should be used by East Coast and European sites. cdiac.esd.ornl.gov [128.219.24.36] (FTP) Contains data and information on general and technical aspects of carbon dioxide, methane, and other trace gas emissions; the carbon cycle; and other climate-change topics from CDIAC (the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, address in section 3). The data for CDIAC's "Trends 91: A Compendium of Data on Global Change" is also available here. (Contact CDIAC at cdp@stc10.ctd.ornl.gov to obtain a copy of the book.) csn.org [128.138.213.21] (FTP) Change directory to "COGS". A large file containing detailed information on FTP sites, Bitnet and Usenet discussion groups, and data sources is located in the file "internet.resources.earth.sci". This file contains more information on mapping, GIS, remote sensing, and geology, subjects which are mostly outside the scope of this meteorology-oriented FAQ. Mapping software and datasets are also available in this directory. Contact bthoen@csn.org (Bill Thoen) for more information. cumulus.met.ed.ac.uk [129.215.168.19] (FTP) Change directory to "images". IR and visible images of Europe from Meteosat, twice daily, in 1152 x 900 GIF format (size of Sun root window). The subdirectory "gifs" has smaller 3x daily images of the Nordic areas, the UK, and Europe. The directory "calmet" contains software and documents in support of computer-aided learning in meteorology; it is associated with the CALMET mailing list described in section IV of this document. The file "intro_to_calmet" in the "documents" subdirectory describes how to find what's available. delocn.udel.edu [128.175.24.1] (FTP or Telnet) Programs to do various oceanographic computations, information about ocean-related data from various sources, other oceanography information. Inquiries and calls for help can be addressed to walt@delocn.udel.edu. Can be accessed via either FTP or Telnet; note that there are DIFFERENT LOGIN NAMES depending on your access method: FTP: Login as "anonymous" and enter your username as a password. Telnet: Use "info" as a login. Menu-driven system. downwind.sprl.umich.edu 3000 [141.212.196.177] (Telnet) Include the "3000" when connecting to the machine. This is a menu driven system which has a large variety of information, including US and Canadian weather forecasts, ski conditions, earthquake reports, severe weather reports, and current weather conditions for some international cities. eosdis.larc.nasa.gov [192.107.191.17] (Telnet) The Langley Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) archives and distributes Radiation Budget, Cloud, Aerosol, and Tropospheric Chemistry Data to the general science community. Data are available via FTP, tape and CD-ROM. Users can use telnet to the DAAC IMS (Information Management System) to place an order. The IMS features a graphical user interface, so you must have an X window or Sun OpenWindows display. (You can contact DAAC by telephone or email as well -- see section III.) Use 'ims' as the login and 'larcims' as the password. For more information contact Sue Sorlie (userserv@eosdis.larc.nasa.gov). explorer.arc.nasa.gov [128.102.32.18] (FTP) Visible and IR hourly GMS images in gif format (neat pictures, may be enhanced), and in hdf format (raw, intended for research), in the directory "pub/Weather/gms". Resolution is 5 km so images are 2-3 MB in size. Also contains Viking, Magellan, and Voyager data from CD-ROM in the directory "cdrom". For more information contact medin@cincsac.arc.nasa.gov (Milo S. Medin). This site is for users "near" California; East Coast US and European sites should connect instead to boa.gsfc.nasa.gov, and Australian sites should use plaza.aarnet.edu.au. ftp.fu-berlin.de [130.133.4.50] (FTP) Change directory to "pub/science/meteorology/meteosat-pictures" for GIFs of Meteosat images, IR and visible, over Europe and the North Atlantic. One day of data is kept and updated every 6 hours. For more information contact dennis@metw3.met.fu-berlin.de (Dennis Schulze). ftp.met.fsu.edu [128.186.5.56] (FTP) This FTP site at Florida State University is mostly a repository for public domain software and shareware that is useful to atmospheric scientists. There are also Hurricane Andrew images in the directory "/pub/hurricane_Andrew". The file "internet.tex" in the "docs" directory contains an article by Jon Ahlquist about Internet resources for atmospheric scientists; this was published in the March 1993 Bulletin of the AMS, but the on-line version will be updated from time to time. For more information contact ahlquist@met.fsu.edu. ftp.netsys.com (FTP) Full-disk GOES images in Sun rasterfile format. Current pictures are in the directory "pub/images"; older pictures and more information are in "pub/west". Contact steve@netsys.com (Steve Eigsti) for info. glis.cr.usgs.gov [152.61.192.54] (Telnet) This is a menu driven system (Global Land Information System) which allows users to search a list of research datasets available from the EROS Data Center at USGS, and order data if desired. Most of the data are ecosystem maps and elevation/depth maps. hanauma.stanford.edu [36.51.0.16] (FTP) The CIA World Bank database contains coastlines, rivers and political boundaries. An 0.5 degree elevation dataset is also there. A program for decoding the CIA data can be found as "mfil" on pi1.arc.umn.edu [137.66.130.11] (Info from ken@msc.edu) hermes.merit.edu [35.1.48.150] (Telnet) Type um-weather at the "Which Host?" prompt and use menus. (Connects to downwind.sprl.umich.edu) hurricane.ncdc.noaa.gov [192.67.134.72] (FTP) Information on datasets available from NCDC (the National Climatic Data Center) in "/pub/upload/inventories". These are inventories of the contents of various datasets. If you find this information useful, please send email to tross@ncdc.noaa.gov, as NCDC wants to evaluate this service. If you wish to order data after browsing this information, contact their customer service department at 704-259-0682. Also available in the directory "/pub/upload/blizzard" is a file "storm.txt" containing observations from the 1993 "Storm of the Century." kihei.idbsu.edu [132.178.15.9] (FTP) Change directory to "/JEI/GOES". 48-hour sequence derived from GOES IR images is in the file "storm.zip" which was compressed with PKZIP 2.04. It is a 640x480 .FLC file and thus requires either running the sequence on a UNIX box or on a DOS machine with a SVGA card that is moderately VESA compatible with 512K RAM. PLAY79.EXE (for DOS) is available on the same site; xanim (for Unix) is available from cs.orst.edu (/pub/src/printers/xanim/xanim.tar.Z) and other sites. (For more info contact Christopher Keane, keane@earthsun.umd.edu.) liasun3.epfl.ch (FTP) Change directory to "pub/weather". IR and visible images of Europe from Meteosat, in GIF format. It appears that this site contains the same images as cumulus.met.ed.ac.uk. marlin.jcu.edu.au [137.219.16.14] (FTP) Change directory to "JCUMetSat". GMS-4 images updated regularly for various Australian states, Australia as a whole, the globe, the TOGA/COARE area, and events of interest such as cyclones. The images are in a format designed for the package JCUMetSat on Amiga computers, but can be converted to GIF format using the ALCHEMY software (shareware) available at this site. (More information on the format and images can be obtained from Professor C.J. Kikkert, eecjk@marlin.jcu.edu.au.) nasagiss.giss.nasa.gov [192.42.70.2] (FTP) Various monthly mean data files, including ISCCP C2 cloud data, surface temperature anomalies, grids of various variables used in the GCM II (General Circ. Model). Also various maps of vegetation indices, cultivation indices, wetland ecosystems. The file "GISS.HELP" contains an index to the contents of this FTP area. Contact giss@nasagiss.giss.nasa.gov for help or more information. (Note: you will be asked for a password -- just enter your email address.) ncardata.ucar.edu [128.117.8.111] (FTP) Information on datasets available from NCAR (the National Center for Atmospheric Research), and a few small datasets. If you would like to order data after browsing this information, email to datahelp@ncar.ucar.edu. Small datasets can be provided by FTP; we also write various kinds of tapes. See the README file. A shell archive containing scripts to retrieve GIFs from vmd.cso.uiuc.edu, get_gifs, is located in the "weather" subdirectory. This subdirectory also contains Colorado weather and ski reports. A few special datasets are located in the FTP area, and are free. They are described in the file "pricing". These include a 1 deg resolution elevation dataset, a continental outline dataset, and a list of all WMO stations with latitude, longitude, and elevation. nodc.nodc.noaa.gov [140.90.235.10] (Telnet) Login as "NOAADIR". Menu-driven system will let you select datasets from various government sources according to search parameters, and will give you contact addresses and other information on them. You can also get information about satellites, sensors, and research experiments. nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (FTP or Telnet) Telnet: The National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) On-Line Data and Information Service (NODIS) is a menu-driven interactive system which provides information on services and data supported by NSSDC. Login as NSSDC. Some topics: Nimbus-7 GRID TOMS Data, Geophysical Models, Standards and Technology Information System. FTP: some information and actual data is also available via anonymous FTP. plaza.aarnet.edu.au [139.130.4.6] (FTP) Same GMS images as explorer.arc.nasa.gov; this site should be used by Australian sites only. sanddunes.scd.ucar.edu (Telnet) AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) images from 1989 through 7 Jan 1992 cover CO, WY, KS, NE, and NM, as well as parts of AZ, UT, OK, and TX. Since 7 Jan 1992, coverage includes these plus CA, OR, NV, WA, and MT, to 1000 km off Pacific coast. Total coverage of US for 1989-present will be available soon. West coast data from 1980-1985 will be available some time this year. Images are 1024 lines x 1024 elements before 7 Jan 1992, 2560 lines x 1024 elements after. Images are 1 km resolution and 8-bit format. Contact Tim Kelley by email kelley@sanddunes.scd.ucar.edu or telephone 303/497-1221 for login, password, and manual. Service is free to Internet users and is funded by NASA. satftp.soest.hawaii.edu [128.171.154.121] (FTP) Sea-Surface-Temperature data (near-real-time) in the directory "pub/avhrr/images". AVHRR images within the radius of reception of the university's HRPT station, approximately 5 S to 45 N and 125 W to 165 E, as well as others world-wide (covering all of the US coastline at the time of writing, subject to being discontinued). The processed images are available usually within 30 min. of NOAA-11 and NOAA-12 passages. GMS images of the full GMS coverage area are available in /pub/GMS. Data are compressed binary in TDF format as well as PostScript images labelled by satellite name (n11/n12/g4) and time. More info available from sat_lab@soest.hawaii.edu. snow.nohrsc.nws.gov [192.46.108.1] (FTP) Various snow-related images in GIF format. US snow cover map updated weekly. JPEG of current AVHRR images. This site will be operational for the 1993 snow season from in December 1992 through June 1993. Contact tim@snow.nohrsc.nws.gov (Tim Szeliga) for more info. spectrum.xerox.com [192.70.225.78] (FTP) Various USGS data in subdirectories under the directory "pub/map". spot.colorado.edu [128.138.129.2] (FTP) Change directory to "pub/weather-images". Weather radar summary map GIFS and PICT files, surface maps, satellite images for several US cities and regions. Also images and other stuff for Andrew in the subdirectory "hurricane.andrew". sseop.jsc.nasa.gov [146.154.11.34] (FTP) Many pictures taken from the space shuttle. Files are in a 512x512 format as red, green, and blue bitmaps. Image files are binary format, and have .DAT as an extension. storm.ofps.ucar.edu [128.117.90.53] (Telnet) Hourly and 5-minute composite surface observations, and composite rawinsonde soundings, from STORM-FEST. Log in as "storm" with the password "research" to access a menu-driven system which will allow you to search for the data you want. (Contact Mark Bradford, bradfrd2@ncar.ucar.edu if you have questions.) sumex-aim.stanford.edu Quicktime (for Macintosh) movie of "Blizzard of 93" in the file /pub/info-mac/art/qt/blizzard-of-93.hqx. (Binhexed file.) tortel.dcc.uchile.cl [146.83.4.40] (Telnet) Weather forecasts for Chile, in Spanish. This is a gopher server; log in as "gopher" (no password) and choose the menu items "Servicios Miscelaneos", then "Pronosticos Meteorologicos", and then "Informe Diario Direccion Meteorologica de Chile". unidata.ucar.edu [128.117.140.3] (FTP) Change directory to "images". Weather radar summary map GIFS, surface maps for various places, a few soundings on skew-t log-p diagrams, GOES Hugo images (in subdirectory "images/hugo"). Surface maps include Europe and China. uriacc.uri.edu [131.128.1.1] (FTP) Change directory to "davet.195". Images of the northeast US in GIF format from the afternoon passes of NOAA-11. (Provided by Dave Tetreault, DAVET@uriacc.uri.edu.) vmd.cso.uiuc.edu [128.174.5.98] (FTP) Change directory to "wx". GOES-7 visible and IR images over the US and Mexico, and surface analyses over the US, are available in GIF format. A script to retrieve GIFs automatically is available from the ncardata.ucar.edu FTP area. Also available in this directory are many useful documents, including SPOTFREQ.DOC and CHASE-TV.DOC, lists of ham radio frequencies and TV stations which carry useful info for storm chasers, WX-PUBS.DOC, which is a list of weather-related publications, WX-TALK.DOC, which gives information on the WX-**** mailing lists, and many others. wilbur.stanford.edu [36.14.0.30] (FTP) Change directory to "pub/weathergifs". IR and visible images of Europe from Meteosat, in GIF format. It appears that this site contains the same images as cumulus.met.ed.ac.uk. Also has satellite images of US. 5. Weather and other meteorological data via Gopher Gopher is a utility program which finds and retrieves information over the network. It uses FTP, telnet, and other tools, but all you interact with is a simple menu system. You can either run your own gopher client program (you can get this free software by ftp to boombox.micro.umn.edu [134.84.132.2] in the directory pub/gopher) or you can telnet to a public gopher client and connect to other gopher servers through it. To connect using your own client, just type "gopher" followed by the name or IP number of the system you wish to connect to. You can telnet or rlogin to a public gopher client instead; here's a list from the alt.gopher FAQ: machine IP login as where consultant.micro.umn.edu 134.84.132.4 gopher North America gopher.uiuc.edu 128.174.33.160 gopher North America gopher.sunet.se 192.36.125.2 gopher Europe info.anu.edu.au 150.203.84.20 info Australia gopher.chalmers.se 129.16.221.40 gopher Sweden tolten.puc.cl 146.155.1.16 gopher South America Through gopher, you can connect to other gopher servers all over the world. Many gopher servers, particularly at US Universities, have local weather reports as one of the menu items. There are also some gopher servers dedicated to weather information, which you can reach either directly or through the public clients listed above using the menu item "Other Gopher and Information Servers": UofI Weather Machine: wx.atmos.uiuc.edu port 70 [128.174.80.10] (Gopher) The UofI Weather Machine has forecasts, images, surface and upper-air weather, local (Illinois) weather, and various useful documents, including GRIB and ON84 format descriptions, station lists, graphics information, etc. Questions, comments, and requests for changes should be sent to gopher@wx.atmos.uiuc.edu. CIESIN-NASA-EOS Global Change Information Network: flubber.ciesin.org [160.39.1.202] (Gopher) This gopher server has some papers on global change (not many yet). Under the "Environmental Internet Catalog" there are resources under various useful topics, particularly under "Earth Science", "Ecology and the Environment", and "Weather and Meteorology". It allows gopher access to some of the FTP and telnet resources described in this document. Comments should be sent to CIESIN.Info@ciesin.org. MN Climatology Working Group: nx1.soils.umn.edu port 70 [128.101.77.165] (Gopher) How to connect via PeachNet Information Service: Under the menu "General Information Services" there is an entry for the Univ. of MN Soils Sciences Dept. Selecting this item will give you several options, including "MN Climatology Working Group". This directory contains lots of files with climate data for Minnesota, mostly obscurely named. Comments and questions to gopher-admin@soils.umn.edu. This source is in the process of becoming a full-fledged project; the name of the machine will soon be changed to gopher.soils.umn.edu, the filenames will be modified to something more useful, more real data will be added, and the gopher information will be propagated to other machines. Watch this space. Universidad de Chile: tortel.dcc.uchile.cl [146.83.4.40] (Gopher) You can also connect via telnet, using the login "gopher". Chilean weather forecasts and information (in Spanish) is available; choose "Servicios Miscelaneos", then "Pronosticos Meteorologicos", then "Informe Diario Direccion Meteorologica de Chile". Free University of Berlin: gopher.fu-berlin.de port 70 (Gopher) Select "Das Wetter in und um Berlin". Meteosat pictures of Europe and the Northern Atlantic, visible and infrared, updated every six hours are under "Meteosat-Bilder"; current weather observations are under "Die Beobachtung"; forecast for the Berlin area is under "Die Vorhersage". 6. Weather and other meteorological data via WAIS WAIS is a tool similar to Gopher which searches through indexed databases to find items containing keywords which are specified by the user. As with Gopher, either you need to have wais running on your system, or you need to use a publicly-accessible wais client. Some Gopher clients allow WAIS searches. A public-access wais client you can rlogin or telnet to using 'wais' as a login is quake.think.com [192.31.181.1]. Here are some sources that may be of use: DOE_Climate_Data.src: ridgisd.er.usgs.gov [130.11.48.107] (WAIS) Service: 210 Database: /usr/opt/wais/db/DOE_Climate_Data Contains information about various climate data sets. The maintainer is tgauslin@ridgisd.er.usgs.gov. NOAA_National_Environmental_Referral_Service.src: ridgisd.er.usgs.gov [130.11.48.107] (WAIS) Service: 210 Database: /usr/opt/wais/db/nedres midwest-weather.src: wais.cic.net [192.131.22.3] (WAIS) Service: 210 Database: midwest-weather National Weather Service forecasts for midwest U.S. states, updated hourly from the `gopher' weather server at the U of Minnesota by emv@cic.net. weather.src: quake.think.com [192.31.181.1] (WAIS) Service: 210 Database: weather This is the WEATHER server, brought to you courtesy of the WAIS folks from Thinking Machines, and the weather folks at VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU and the University of Michigan. Currently you'll get the best results by asking this server for 'weather'. The returned list of files should include this file, as well as the day's satellite weather maps. You might want to refine your search by including "gif" if you'd rather get the maps, or "txt" if you want the textual weather forecasts. You can try by city name, too. Comments to weather-server@quake.think.com. 7. Weather and other meteorological data via AFS (Andrew File System) If your site uses AFS, you can change directory to these directories and retrieve these files. Please don't ask me about AFS, because I don't use it. /afs/athena.mit.edu/project/weather (AFS) Contains images from vmd.cso.uiuc.edu and from wx.atmos.uiuc.edu in various subdirectories (SATELLITE, SURFACE, etc.). The most recent images are flagged with the name 'latest' so you can easily find them. There's also an animation program. Contact ericldab@athena.mit.edu for more info. ######################################################################## Subject: CD-ROM source list Copyright (c) 1993 by Ilana Stern. C O N T E N T S 1. Basic information 2. List of CD-ROMs by topic, with summaries A. Weather data B. Research data C. Miscellaneous 1. Basic information CD-ROMs tend to be relatively expensive, but can hold as much as 600 megabytes of data. Prices are current as of October 1991; prices for some discs are not known. Some discs are provided with driving software. Most of the software is for IBM-PC or compatible systems, but some is available for the Macintosh, and, increasingly, for Unix systems. Some of these listings are not for CD-ROMs, but are for floppies or tapes. These are listed here, rather than in the section on data available on other media, because they have been prepared as a package. The research data available on tape is generally copied from a computer archive as requests come in. Commercial sources are flagged as such. Inclusion of a commercial source in this listing does not imply endorsement. 2. List of CD-ROMs by topic, with summaries A. Weather data Climate Change Data ($950, or 595 pounds sterling from UK source): Monthly 5-degree surface temperature anomaly grids 1854-1990, pressure grids 1873-1990. Monthly world temperature data at about 3500 stations and precipitation data at about 6500 stations, for period of record (long). Retrieval and mapping software included, available for various systems. Contact: Dr. Phil Jones, Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ United Kingdom. Distributed in North America by Chadwyck-Healey Inc.,1101 King St, Alexandria, VA 22314. 800/752-0515. World Weather Disc ($295): Monthly temp, precip, pressure, sunshine data for about 2000 world stations for period of record. Daily weather data at hundreds of US stations. Data for some stations on temp, precip, freeze, drought, soil moisture, wind, storms. Frequency and movement of tropical cyclones. Contact: Cliff Mass, Dept. of Atmos. Sci. (AK40), University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195. 206/685-0910. National Climate Info System ($50): Monthly temperature, precipitation, Palmer drought index data for 344 climate divisions of US. Data can be viewed in tabular or graphical format. Contact: National Climatic Data Center, Federal Building, Asheville, NC 28801. 704/259-0682. Meteosat Images on CD-ROM, 1986 to 1991 (price unknown): One full-disk infra-red image per day (usually at 12h00 UTC), one visible image on day 1 of each month (at the same time as the infra-red image), one water-vapour image on day 1 of each month of 1991 (at the same time as the infra-red and visible image). Images of the snow storm over the East coast of the USA on 12&13 March 1993 (from meteosat-3 at 75 degrees East). Images of Kuwait during the Gulf war. Full-disk Images taken by Meteosat-3 at 75 degrees East at the beginning of March 1993. Contact: J. Le Ber, Meteosat Data Service, European Space Agency, Robert Bosch Str. 5, D6100 DARMSTADT GERMANY High Resolution Climatology ($199/variable): *COMMERCIAL* (Floppy disk) Average monthly climatological values of maximum temperature, minimum temperature, and precipitation for every 1 square km of the conterminous US for the 30-year periods 1951-1980 and 1961-1990. The data are stored as a rectangular matrix for each state. Digitized state and county political boundaries are included and referenced to the climate data sets. The data are in raster form as ASCII or 16-bit binary integers. This dataset is distributed on 5.25" or 3.5" floppy disks. Contact: ZedX, Inc., P.O. Box 404, Boalsburg, PA 16827-0404. 814/466-2025. B. Research data NMC gridpoint dataset ($150): Twice daily grids for the Northern Hemisphere at a resolution of about 381 km. Contact: National Center for Atmospheric Research, PO Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307. 303/497-1219, email datahelp@ncar.ucar.edu. National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) discs: Various discs available, including: ice and snow coverage, ocean sediment drilling data, ionospheric vertical soundings ($100), solar variability (sunspots, magnetic field data, flares, tree-ring data -- $100), geophysics of North America (earthquake data, magnetic fields, topography, gravity, geopolitical info -- $600), and more. Contact: NGDC, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80303. 303/497-6958. Global Ocean Temperature and Salinity (2 discs, $80 each or $124/both) Temperature and salinity in the world ocean for about 1900-1990, based on all available XBTs, MBTs, BTs, etc. Contact: National Oceanographic Data Center, NOAA/NESDIS E/OC21, Washington, DC 20235. 202/673-5549. GALE and ERICA datasets (2 discs, price not known): GALE (Genesis of Atlantic Lows), 1/15/86-4/15/86: ship data, raobs, aircraft, radar, etc off N Carolina coast. ERICA (Experiment on Rapidly Intensifying Cyclones over the Atlantic), 12/1/88-2/26/89: rawinsondes, aircraft, radar, buoys, satellite data, etc. Contact: C. Kreitzberg, Dept. of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104. GEDEX (Greenhouse Effect Detection Experiment)(price not known): Two discs containing surface, upper air, and/or satellite-derived measurements of temperature, solar irradiance, clouds, greenhouse gases, fluxes, albedo, aerosols, ozone, and water vapor, along with Southern Oscillation Indices and Quasi-Biennial Oscillation statistics. Many of the data sets provide global coverage. The spatial resolutions vary from zonal to 2.5 degree grids. Some surface station data sets span more than 100 years; most satellite-derived sets cover only the past 12 years. Temporal coverage is monthly for most sets. An update will be available by June 1992. Contact: NCDS/Goddard Distributed Active Archive Center, Code 935, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771. 301/286-3209, email NCDSUSO@NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV. A more complete description of these discs may be obtained from the ncardata.ucar.edu FTP site, in the file "catalogs/nondss/gedex". DMSP SSM/I Brightness Temperature Grids for the Polar Regions, volume 1-15, 9 July 1987 - 31 March 1991 (Price on request): Each volume contains 3 months of daily brightness temperature grids. Sensor is currently flying; one additional CD-ROM volume is produced approximately every 8 weeks. Passive microwave brightness temperatures (7 dual-polarized frequencies ranging from 19.3 to 85.5 GHz.), used primarily to derive sea ice concentration; Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Data format: 16-bit raster images (2-byte integers), in "SSM/I grid format". Associated software: Extraction and ice concentration software, IMDISP image display program for IBM PC, IMAGIC image display program for the Macintosh II. Software distributed on diskettes. Contact: World Data Center A for Glaciology [Snow and Ice], National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado, CIRES - Campus Box 449, Boulder, CO 80309. 303/492-5171, FAX 303/492-2468, email nsidc@kryos.colorado.edu (Claire Hanson). DMSP SSM/I Ice Concentration Grids for the Polar Regions, Volume 1, 9 July 1987 - 31 December 1989 (Price on request): Contains sea ice concentration derived from SSM/I brightness temperatures, using NASA Team algorithm and J. Comiso algorithm, for Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Data format: 8-bit raster images (1-byte integers) in "SSM/I grid format". Grid files have HDF (Hierarchical Data Format) header labels. Additional volumes will be produced, for the entire time series. Associated software: Source code used to derive ice concentration from brightness temperatures. IMDISP image display software. Software distributed on diskettes. Contact: World Data Center A for Glaciology, information above. Nimbus-7 SMMR Polar Radiances, Volumes 1-12, 25 October 1978 - 20 August 1987 (life of SMMR sensor) (Price on request): Contains passive microwave brightness temperatures (5 dual-polarized frequencies ranging from 6.6 to 37 GHz) and derived sea ice concentration for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Data format: 2-byte integers, in single-frequency grids. Associated software: IMDISP image display program (C code) for IBM PC; landmask and latitude/longitude overlay (Fortran). Software distributed on IBM PC diskettes. Contact: World Data Center A for Glaciology, information above. Eastern Arctic Ice, Ocean and Atmosphere Data, Volume 1, CEAREX-1 ($50): Contains sea ice acceleration, deformation and stress; hydrography (CTDs); meteorology; bathymetry; acoustics and ambient noise (sample data) from Coordinated Eastern Arctic Experiment (CEAREX). Includes meteorology from Marginal Ice Zone Experiment (MIZEX), 1983, 1984, 1987. Experiment location: Arctic Ocean north of Svalbard; Fram Strait, September 1988 - May 1989. Amount of data: 460 mbytes. Data format: ASCII files. Associated software: none. Additional volumes are planned; content not yet determined. Contact: World Data Center A for Glaciology, information above. NWS/NOHRSC Snow cover data ($200 each year): Airborne snow water equivalent and satellite areal extent of snow cover data for 1990-1992 are now available on CD-ROM for major portions of the U.S. and southern Canada. The CD-ROMs include: (1) airborne snow water equivalent data and the digitized flight line network, (2) calibrated AVHRR and GOES satellite data used to map snow cover, (3) the classified snow cover images (4) national and regional snow cover image products, and (5) ancillary data sets including digital elevation data, digitized NWS basin boundaries, and the alphanumeric results of the satellite snow cover mapping by basin and by elevation zone. Contact: CD-ROM Snow Cover Data, National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center (NOHRSC), Office of Hydrology, National Weather Service, 6301 34th Avenue South: Room 112, Minneapolis, MN 55450-2985. 612/725-3258, FAX 612/725-3338, email tim@snow.nohrsc.nws.gov (Tim Szeliga) C. Miscellaneous NASA discs: Various discs available, including: Voyager spacecraft images (12 discs, under $20 each!), Viking images of Mars, Magellan Venus data, Halley's comet data (25 discs), excerpts from astronomical catalogs, and more. Contact: NSSDC (NASA Space Science Data Center), Code 933.4, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771. 301/286-6695. They also publish a free newsletter. CD-ROM, INC: *COMMERCIAL* Several hundred discs available, including: "GRIPS 2" high resolution images of topography, Landsat, vegetation maps, plus software ($49), "JEDI" 3 discs full of earth, space, and sea science data intended for school use ($31), 13 business/economic discs, >50 literature and entertainment discs, >40 health-related discs, many science discs. Prices range from $29-$895. Free catalog available from them. Contact: CD-ROM, Inc, 1667 Cole Blvd. Suite 400, Golden, CO 80401. 303/231-9373, FAX 303/231-9581. Digital Chart of the World ($200): The Digital Chart of the World (DCW) is a comprehensive 1:1,000,000-scale vector basemap of the world containing cartographic, attribute, and textual data. It is provided with software that permits the database to be accessed, queried, and displayed on PC-class computers. The primary source for the database is the U.S. Defense Mapping Agency (DMA) Operational Navigation Chart (ONC) series. There are 4 discs: (1)North America, (2)Europe/Northern Asia, (3)South American/Africa/Antarctica, and (4)Southern Asia/Australia. The data are organized into 17 thematic coverages, including political boundaries and ocean coast lines, cities, transportation networks, drainage, land cover, and elevation contours. Contact: USGS Open File Section, Box 25286, Denver, CO 80225. 303/236-7476. ######################################################################## Subject: Research data on tape and other media Copyright (c) 1993 by Ilana Stern. Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC): Research and distribution center for data related to carbon dioxide, methane, and other trace gas emissions; the carbon cycle; and other climate-change topics. You can access catalog information by FTP (see section I). Datasets are available on various media including CD-ROM and magnetic tape. They also publish a free newsletter. Contact: CDIAC, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P. O. Box 2008, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6335. 615/574-0390, FAX 615/574-2232, email cdp@stc10.ctd.ornl.gov. Langley Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC): Archive and distribution center for radiation budget, cloud, aerosol, and tropospheric chemistry data. You can access catalog information by telnet (see section I). Data are available via FTP, tape and CD-ROM. Contact: Langley DAAC, NASA Langley Research Center, MS 157B, Hampton, VA 23681-0001 804/864-8656, FAX 804/864-8807, email userserv@eosdis.larc.nasa.gov. NASA Space Science Data Center (NSSDC): Astronomical and atmospheric data. You can access catalog information by FTP or telnet (see section I). Contact: NSSDC, Code 933.4, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771. 301/286-6695. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR): Over 400 datasets available to the research community on various media. You can access catalog information by FTP (see section I). Contact: NCAR Data Support Section, PO Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307. 303/497-1219, FAX 303/497-1137, email datahelp@ncar.ucar.edu. (DISCLAIMER: NCAR is a non-profit government organization operated by UCAR under a grant from the NSF. Our charges reflect the actual cost of data retrieval and magnetic media. I receive no benefit from you ordering data. Please, research-related inquiries only.) National Climatic Data Center (NCDC): NCDC, Federal Building, Asheville, NC 28801. 704/259-0682. National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC): NGDC, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80303. 303/497-6958. United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)/Global Resource Information Database (GRID): Digital environmental data and information related to the Earth's surface, oceans and atmosphere, free of charge to non-commercial users. Typical global data sets include elevation, hydrology, soils, life zones, vegetation, wetlands, climate, natural/physical boundaries, earthquake hazards, vegetation index (NOAA/GVI), human population etc. For a free catalog of global datasets, contact: Facility Manager, UNEP/GRID-Geneva, 6 rue de la Gabelle, CH-1227 Carouge, Geneva SWITZERLAND. (0041-22) 343-8660, FAX (0041-22) 343-8862, email POSTMAN@grid.unige.ch or POSTMAN@CGEGRD11.BITNET. For a free catalog of datasets for Africa and Latin America, contact: Facility Manager, UNEP/GRID-Nairobi, P. O. Box 30552, Nairobi, KENYA. (00254-2) 230-800, FAX (00254-2) 226-491. ######################################################################## Subject: Weather-related mailing lists Copyright (c) 1993 by Ilana Stern. C O N T E N T S 1. CLIMLIST: conferences, data availability in climatology 2. Weather-users: discussions of weather servers 3. WX-TALK: general and specialized weather-related discussions 4. Wxsat: redistribution of bulletins on weather satellites 5. CALMET: discussion of computer-aided learning in meteorology 6. Met-stud: meteorology students' mailing list 1. CLIMLIST (moderated by John Arnfield) CLIMLIST is a moderated electronic mail distribution list for climat- ologists and those working in closely-related fields. It is used to disseminate notices regarding conferences and workshops, data avail- ability, calls for papers, positions available etc, as well as requests for information. An updated directory of email addresses for the subscribers to the list is distributed every month (usually on the 15th). To subscribe, mail to whichever of these addresses works for you: AJA+@OHSTMAIL.BITNET / aja+@osu.edu / johna@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu with the following information: Your name; your email address; your departmental & institutional affiliation; whether your email address is shared or personal; your area of interest or responsibility within climatology. 2. Weather-users (administered by scott@zorch.sf-bay.org) This list is for discussions of weather servers; sharing of code to automatically query weather servers; and announcements of availability (or lack thereof) and changes to weather servers. Initially, Jeff Masters (sdm@downwind.sprl.umich.edu) has agreed to send Weather Underground status notices to this list. To join or quit the list, email to weather-users-request@zorch.sf-bay.org; the list mail address is weather-users@zorch.sf-bay.org. 3. WX-TALK and other WX-lists WX-TALK, formerly STORM-L, is a mailing list for weather-related topics, special event notifications, job announcements, and administrative messages. This list, and other specialized weather-related lists, are run from the vmd.cso.uiuc.edu (UIUCVMD) machine at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. WX-TALK is for discussions and questions; the others are intended to distribute information on particular topics, but you should not post mail to them. To join the list, send a message consisting of the single line SUB WX-TALK Your Name to whichever of these addresses works for you: LISTSERV@UIUCVMD / LISTSERV@UIUCVMD.BITNET / LISTSERV@VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU or uiucuxc!vmd!listserv from uucp. Contributions should then go to WX-TALK@[working address] For more information, and a list of the other WX-lists on vmd.cso.uiuc.edu, use anonymous FTP to retrieve the file WX-TALK.DOC from vmd.cso.uiuc.edu in the directory "wx". 4. Wxsat (administered by Richard B. Emerson) Wxsat resends all NOAA/NESDIS bulletins on polar and geostationary weather satellites as well as occasional material on Meteosat. Bulletins with orbital predictions, spacecraft operation schedules, and related messages are copied from NOAA.SAT on SCIENCEnet and forwarded to all addresses on the list. The list is configured to accept and broadcast mail from subscribers to the list at large. Wxsat does not store or distribute imagery and is not primarily a "chat" list. Wxsat is oriented towards users with a daily operational need for TBUS and related bulletins. An archive of roughly 60 days' messages are available for retrieval via email messages to wxsat-archive@ssg.com. Send the message "help" in the text to the archive server for details on how to retrieve the current index and other files. Subscription requests go to wxsat-request@ssg.com. The service is free to all Internet users but donations are accepted as this is a volunteer operation. 5. CALMET (Computer Aided Learning in Meteorology) CALMET is a mailing list dedicated to computer-aided learning in meteorology. It is associated with the ftp site cumulus.met.ed.ac.uk. To join the list, send mail to calmet-request@ed.ac.uk. Messages to the list go to calmet@ed.ac.uk. 6. Met-stud (administered by Dennis Schulze) This mailing list is open to all, but particularly intended as a communications facility among meteorology students worldwide. Subjects of discussion could include scholarships, summer schools, conferences, and comparisons of the meteorology programs at various universities. Meteorological problems and questions could also be discussed. Subscription requests and other administrative mail should be sent to dennis@metw3.met.fu-berlin.de. Messages to the mailing list go to met-stud@metw3.met.fu-berlin.de. Although the list is based in Germany, the language used is English. ######################################################################## -- /\ I'm cruising the data superhighway! \_][ <--NCAR Ilana Stern dod#009 r.b. cliff swallow ilana@ncar.ucar.edu \______________________________________________________________________