ISCCP Data Directory




The cd-rom data directory holds the ISCCP-C2 Monthly Cloud Products for the years 1983 (beginning July 1983), 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, and 1990 in separate subdirectories [e.g., (using DOS notation) DATA\1983\]. The data reside on the disk in their original format, as produced by GISS on an IBM computer, except that IBM standard header and trailer files from the original product on tape have been removed.

The first five files in each annual data directory are written in ASCII and are arranged in 80-character strings.


The remaining data files (FILE006.DAT-FILE113.DAT) are written as one-byte binary integers and correspond to the eight UTC time periods for each month of the year and the monthly data for all twelve months. [e.g., FILE006.DAT-FILE013.DAT hold values for the hours of 00, 03, 06, 09, 12, 15, 18, and 21 UTC in January. FILE014.DAT, designated as "ALL" in the table of contents file (TOC.TXT), holds monthly mean data.]
Please note that the value "255" is used to indicate the monthly data in the actual data file. A full year of data is held in 108 files.


Seventy-two variables are available which include temporal and spatial means and standard deviations for cloud top pressure and temperature, cloud optical depth, and cloud water path. Optical depth, water path, cloud top pressure, cloud top temperature, and frequencies are available for low, middle, and high clouds and for cumulus, stratus, altocumulus, nimbostratus, cirrus, and deep convective clouds. Also offered as part of the C2 product are surface reflectance and snow/ice cover information. Variables derived from the TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS) are precipitable water; surface, 500 mb, tropopause, and stratospheric temperatures; and surface and tropopause pressures. Variables derived from visible wavelengths are available only during daylight hours.