Subject: Sources of Meteorological Data FAQ part 2/2 Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology,news.answers,sci.answers From: ilana@kiowa.scd.ucar.edu (Ilana Stern) Date: 10 May 1994 11:00:25 GMT Archive-name: weather/data/part2 Last-modified: 3 May 1994 Recent changes: ==within last two weeks== ==within last four weeks== Changed "Introduction" section to "Overview" to fit better with html version This is a guide to sources of meteorological, oceanographic, and geophysical data which can be obtained via tape, CD-ROM, and other media. Contents: 1) Overview 2) How to get a current copy of this document 3) CD-ROM source list 4) Data centers Each (major) section has a "Subject:" line, so you can search on the subject title above to find the section quickly. --------------- Subject: Overview This is part 2 of a guide to various sources of meteorological, oceanographic, and geophysical data. Some of these data sets are intended for enjoyment or hobbyist use; other data are more research-oriented. Much of the research data is not free and is not directly available over the network; usually, only information about this data is available, and you must place an order for the actual data. The contents of this series of FAQs are: Part 1: Meteorological data available via the Internet Part 2: Meteorological data available via tape, CD-ROM, and other media The section on mailing lists which used to be included in this FAQ is now a separate FAQ, "Mailing lists and newsgroups for meteorology". This article is copyright (c) 1993 by Ilana Stern. It may be freely distributed for non-commercial purposes only, provided that this copyright notice and the instructions on retrieving a current copy are not removed. The information in this article is provided as-is, with no warranties or assurances as to its accuracy. 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. 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. --------------- Subject: How to get a current copy of this document If you are reading this document after 24 May 1994, you are reading an outdated copy. A current copy can be obtained by anonymous FTP to rtfm.mit.edu, from the file weather/data/part2 in the directory /pub/usenet/news.answers. These files are updated every two weeks, when a new copy is posted to sci.geo.meteorology, news.answers, and sci.answers. This document also appears on the mailing lists CLIMLIST and met-stud, which are described in the FAQ, "Mailing Lists for Meteorology". If you can't use FTP, send email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with send /pub/usenet/news.answers/weather/data/part2 as the only text in the message (leave the subject blank). --------------- Subject: CD-ROM source list 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 Volume 1($50): Monthly temperature, precipitation, Palmer Hydrological Drought Index for 344 climate divisions of US. Data can be viewed in tabular or graphical format. The disc covers the period 1895-1989 and contains 1032 time-series graphs, 4180 maps, and 5400 frames of video animation. Contact: National Climatic Data Center, Federal Building, Asheville, NC 28801. 704/271-4800, email orders@ncdc.noaa.gov. SAMSON (Solar and Meteorological Surface Observational Network) (3 disks, $100 each): The three CD-ROMs are divided geographically into regions: eastern, central, and western U.S., and contain hourly solar radiation data along with selected meteorological elements for the period 1961-1990. It encompasses 237 NWS stations in the United States, and also includes Guam and Puerto Rico. The dataset includes both observational and modelled data. The hourly solar elements are: Extraterrestrial horizontal and extraterrestrial direct normal radiation; global, diffuse, and direct normal radiation. Meteorological elements are: Total and opaque sky cover, temperature and dew point, relative humidity, pressure, wind direction and speed, visibility, ceiling height, present weather, precipitable water, aerosol optical depth, snow depth, days since last snowfall, and hourly precipitation. Contact: National Climatic Data Center, see above. CLIVUE CD-ROM ($50): The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) developed a CD-ROM in support of a museum exhibit which traveled across the U.S. The CD contains a 1,500-station subset of NCDC's nearly 8,000 U.S. daily cooperative stations. The user selects a date and area of the U.S. and the CD-ROM database is queried for stations within the specified domain having data. Then, the system displays daily maximum and minimum temperatures, precipitation, and snowfall for the site. Graphs showing 7 years, 21 years, and the full period of record (varies by station) for the station(s) are available. Visual displays allow users to view trends, variability, and extremes. Contact: National Climatic Data Center, see above. International Station Meteorological Climate Summary (ISMCS) 2.0 ($50) This CD released in August 1992 gives detailed climatological summaries for about 980 locations worldwide. These locations include National Weather Service locations, domestic and overseas Navy and Air Force sites, and selected foreign stations. Limited summaries are also given for an additional almost 5,000 worldwide sites. Tabular or statistical data can be exported to a printer or spreadsheet. Also supports limited mouse capability. Contact: National Climatic Data Center, see above. U.S. Navy Marine Climatic Atlas of the World Ver 1.0 ($50): This CD-ROM includes analysis and display software for climatological averages of atmospheric and oceanographic data. The data are summarized with user-defined 1 and 5 degree grid areas covering the global marine environment. The summaries are produced using predominately ship data collected between 1854-1969. The major elements include air and sea temperature, dewpoint temperature, scalar wind speed, sea- level pressure, wave height, wind and ocean- current roses. This CD also allows the user to define element intervals (e.g. 5 to 10 knots, 2 degree temperature intervals). Contouring for explicitly user-defined regions and exporting data to a printer or diskette are supported. Contact: National Climatic Data Center, see above. Meteosat Images on CD-ROM, 1986 to 1991 (price on request): 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. US Summary of Day (4 disks, prices vary): *COMMERCIAL* NCDC Summary of Day data, USGS streamflow data, retrieval and analysis software. Contact: Hydrosphere, Inc., 1002 Walnut, Suite 200, Boulder, CO 80302 800/949-4937, 303/443-7839 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: Gulf of Mexico GLORIA data, Geophysics of North America, global ecosystems, global topography, gravity data, solar activity, and more. A catalog and price list are available via gopher or ftp (see part 1). Contact: NGDC, 325 Broadway E/GC4, Dept. 894, Boulder, CO 80303. 303/497-6958, email info@ngdc.noaa.gov. 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. 202/606-4549. Global Upper Air Climatic Atlas (GUACA) ($200): This two-volume CD-ROM set uses a 12-year (1980-1991) 2.5 degree upper air data base obtained from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). This CD presents upper air statistics for 15 vertical levels in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere for dry bulb and dewpoint temperature, geopotential height, air density, and vector and scalar wind speed. The disc provides access/display software for gridpoint data, contouring capability for user-defined areas, and vertical profiles. The climatology covers the 12-year period as well as individual year-months. Contact: National Climatic Data Center, Federal Building, Asheville, NC 28801. 704/271-4800, email orders@ncdc.noaa.gov. Radiosonde Data of North America 1946-1992. ($400): Contains all available radiosonde data for North America (U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Caribbean Islands) through the 100-mb level on four disks. Disk periods are 1946-1965, 1966-1979, 1980-1989, and 1990-1992. Data includes significant, mandatory, and special wind levels for all observation times and includes geopotential height, temperature, dew point and wind direction, and scalar speed. The user can select for output to printer, screen, or file, a single station or multiple stations for a defined time period, or all stations within a specified geographic region in either synoptic or station sort. The CD also contains available station metadata. Contact: National Climatic Data Center, see above. Global Tropical and Extratropical Cyclone Climatic Atlas (GTECCA) ($100): This CD-ROM contains all global historic tropical storm track data available for five tropical storm basins. Periods of record varies for each basin, with the beginning as early as the 1870s and with 1992 at the latest year. Northern hemispheric extratropical storm track data will be included from 1965 to 1992. Tropical track data includes time, position, storm stage (maximum wind, central pressure when available). The user can display tracks, track data for any basin or user-selected geographic area, or tracks passing within a user-defined radius of any point. Narratives for all tropical storms for the 1980-1992 period will be included as well as basin-wide tropical storm climatological statistics. Available November 1993. Contact: National Climatic Data Center, see above. 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. NOTE: T. Thornton got no reply from this address, it may not still be valid (9/93). 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". HCDN (Hydro-climatic data network) streamflow dataset (price not known): Contains dataset, search software, and USGS Open-File Report 92-129 (Slack, J.R., and Landwehr, J.M., 1992, Hydro-climatic data network (HCDN): A U.S. Geological Survey streamflow data set for the United States for the study of climate variations, 1874-1988). Contact: USGS, National Water Data Exchange (NAWDEX), MS 421 - National Center, Reston VA 22092. The principal author of this dataset, James R. Slack, can be reached via email at jrslack@qvarsa.er.usgs.gov. The information on the CD-ROM is also available via anonymous FTP from srv1rvares.er.usgs.gov in the directory "hcdn92". DMSP SSM/I Brightness Temperature Grids for the Polar Regions, volume 1-18, 9 July 1987 - 31 December 1991 (Price on request): Each volume contains 3 months of daily polar brightness temperature grids from SSM/I flying on DMSP F8 platform. Passive microwave brightness temperatures (7 dual-polarized frequencies ranging from 19.3 to 85.5 GHz.) used primarily to derive sea ice concentration; coverage is north and south polar regions. NSIDC will process and distribute similar product for SSM/I data from DMSP F11 in the near future. 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, with user's guide. 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. 303/492-2366, FAX 303/492-2468, email nsidc@kryos.colorado.edu Omnet: NSIDC (Claire Hanson). DMSP SSM/I Ice Concentration Grids for the Polar Regions, Volume 1: 9 July 1987 - 31 December 1989; Vol 2: 1 January 1990 to 31 December 1991: (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. DMSP F11 SSM/I ice concentrations will be processed and distributed by NSIDC in the near future. Data format: 8-bit raster images (1-byte integers) in "SSM/I grid format". Grid files have HDF (Hierarchical Data Format) header labels. Associated software: Source code used to derive ice concentration from brightness temperatures. IMDISP image display software. Software distributed on diskettes. NCSA software that reads HDF-labelled data is available via ftp from NCSA. 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 north and south polar regions. 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. Historical Arctic Rawinsonde Archive on CD-ROM (3 volumes, price on request): The Historical Arctic Rawisonde Archive on CD-ROM, volumes 1-3, contains over 1.2 million vertical soundings of temperature, pressure, humidity, and wind, representing all available rawisonde ascents from Arctic land stations poleward of 65 degrees North through 1987. (Data for 1988-1990, and monthly averaged data, will be prepared for CD-ROM volume 4 in the near future.) For most stations the record begins in 1958, a few begin in 1947 or 1948. The data are one file per year per station. Coverage is relatively uniform, except in the interior of Greenland. Typically 20-40 levels are available in each sounding. Software: Documentation is provided on the CD-ROM volumes, and in hard copy (NSIDC Special Report 2, 1992). Software (Fortran and C) is provided on the CD-ROM volumes to retrieve a subset of the sounding data. Reference: Kahl, J.D., M.C. Serreze, S. Shiotani, S.M. Skony, and R.C. Schnell, In situ meteorological sounding archives for arctic studies, Bul. Amer. Met. Soc., 73(11), 1824-1830, 1992. 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 ($50 each year): Airborne snow water equivalent and satellite areal extent of snow cover data for 1990-1993 are now available on CD-ROM for major portions of the U.S., Alaska, and 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) STORM-FEST data (3 discs, price unknown): Data from the STORM-FEST experiment -- surface observations and rawinsonde, satellite, radar, NOWRAD, and profiler data -- plus Zeb software for viewing the data. Contact Steve Williams, sfw@ncar.ucar.edu. Nimbus-7 Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS) Phytoplankton Pigment concentration Data and NOAA AVHRR SST images (5 discs, price on request) From JPL. Contact ral@shrimp.jpl.nasa.gov (Ruby Lassanyi) at the JPL Physical Oceanography User Support Office for more details. TOGA/COARE GMS-4 images (2 discs, $75 for the set): GMS-4 images during the TOGA/COARE Intensive Observation Period (November 1992 to March 1993) regridded over 135E - 175E, 10S - 10N, 5km square pixel size. 1910 infrared and 877 visible images of albedo and brightness temperature with overlays of the geographic grid and the positions of moorings and ships. Images are in compressed PostScript format but tools are included to uncompress and convert the data into other formats. Contact: Satellite Oceanography Laboratory, University of Hawaii, 1000 Pope Road, Honolulu, HI 96822. The check should be made to the order of "RCUH". Surface Radiation Budget (SRB) Global Datasets (price not known): Contains Version 1.1 SRB shortwave products for the period March 1985 through December 1988 as produced by the World Climate Research Programme's (WCRP) SRB Satellite Data Analysis Center (SDAC). Inputs to the Version 1.1 product are results from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) and the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE). SDAC uses two methods (known as the Pinker and Staylor algorithms) to estimate surface downward and net irradiances, surface albedo, downward direct/diffuse ratio, surface cloud forcing, and daylight cloud fraction. In addition, various other radiation, cloud, meteorological and diagnostic parameters are provided to aid the user in understanding variations in the SRB parameters. The SRB CD-ROM has been formatted and produced to work with IBM PCs, Apple Macintoshes and Unix systems with ISO-9660 CD-ROM driver support. In addition, read and display software for IBM PCs and Apple Macintoshes are available upon request. Contact: Langley DAAC User Services, MS 157B, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, 23681-0001. (804)864-8656, userserv@eosdis.larc.nasa.gov United Kindom Digital Marine Atlas V2.0 (UKP56.40): (Floppy disk) This is an IBM compatibile PC based Marine Atlas covering the Northeast Atlantic and mainly centered on the British Isles. It comes on five 1.4MB floppies and runs under DOS (V3.0 or higher). It has several sections covering areas such as general Bathymetry, Marine Geology, Marine and Coastal Nature Conservation in Breat Britain, Marine Biology, Physical Oceanography, Marine Chemistry, Fisheries and the BODC data catalogues amongst others. Contact: UKDMAP Project Manager, British Oceanographic Data Centre, Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, Bidston Observatory, BIRKENHEAD, Merseyside L43 7RA United Kingdom. +44 51 653 8633, Fax: +44 51 652 3950. 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. 303/526-7600, 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: Data Centers These sites maintain data archives for use by scientists. Usually, researchers affiliated with a data center can use the data on-site for free, but other researchers who require tapes or other media must pay a small charge for data transfer. 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 part 1). 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 part 1). 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 part 1). 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 part 1). 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. 704/271-4800. National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC): NGDC, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80303. 303/497-6958, info@ngdc.noaa.gov. 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.