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                             Atlas 8 Definition

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     ATLAS8 describes the collection of data compiled from MOHSST6 and
     represents a major upgrade of ATLAS7. Most files in ATLAS8 contain
     data through December 1995, except where indicated.

     The bucket corrections for the SST data are from Folland and
     Parker 1995. (See "Documents - Research Papers Ref 1). The SST
     climatology is based on work described by Parker, D.E., et al
     1995. (See "Documents - Research Papers" Ref 4).

     The surface flux values (stored in A820rm05.hdf) are derived from
     work by Zhongxiang Wu using an updated version of the
     Comprehensive Ocean Atmosphere Data Set (COADS) and a modified set
     of bulk equations recently recommended by the oceanographic
     community. (See "Documents - Research Papers" Ref 6).

     The reference period for the climatologies and anomalies is 1961
     to 1990, except for the heat flux data which are for 1949 to 1990.

     MOHSST6 describes SST data compiled in January 1996. More recent
     in-situ data have been added and the coverage and quality control
     procedures have also been improved: Parker, D.E., et al 1995 (See
     "Documents - Research Papers" Ref 3). Normals and statistics
     (standard deviations, lag correlations etc.) have been
     recalculated using the same ATLAS7 techniques and in most cases
     the same programs have been used.

     MOHMAT4N describes the Night Marine Air Temperature data used to
     create ATLAS8. The data have similar corrections to those in
     ATLAS7, but "night" is defined as from sunset + 1 hour to sunrise
     + 1 hour to avoid residual solar heating of ship's decks.

     MOHAST describes the air-sea temperature difference data. In
     ATLAS8 the climatology for 1961 to 1990 has been calculated using
     individual nighttime observations of air-sea temperature
     difference, with the difference between the GISST2.0
     SST climatology and the MOHMAT4N Night Marine Air Temperature
     (NMAT) climatology as background field.

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