This is the fourth ECMWF-users' newsletter.  To get copies of previous
newsletters, use anonymous FTP to ncardata.ucar.edu [128.117.8.111] and
change directory to datasets/ds111.2/news.  

                        11 September 1992

CONTENTS:

        o Advanced Operational Analysis Upper-Air Dataset (ds111.0),
	  Surface and Diagnostic Fields Dataset (ds111.1), and Supplementary
	  Fields Dataset (ds111.3) updated through July 1992
        o Basic Consolidated Dataset (ds111.2) updates suspended
	o New dataset, ds111.5:  year-month means based on ds111.2
	o Elevations derived from surface geopotential in ds111.2 are
	  available via FTP
	o Apparent missing grids in ds111.0 are really there

============================================================================

	Advanced Operational Analysis (ds111.0, .1, .3) update

The Advanced Operational Analysis Upper-Air, Surface and Diagnostic Fields,
and Supplementary Fields datasets (ds111.0, ds111.1, and ds111.3) have
all been updated through July 1992.  If you are planning to use the data 
on NCAR's Cray, you can obtain the listing of the volume serial numbers 
containing the data from the file datasets/ds111.X/MASTER, via anonymous 
FTP to ncardata.ucar.edu.  This file is also on the Mass Store under
the name /DSS/D/DS111X.  (In both of these paths, X should be replaced 
with either 0, 1, or 3 depending on the dataset of interest.)

If you have not used data for dates after December 1989 from these 
datasets, please read the previous ECMWF-users' newsletters for important
information about changes to these datasets.
===
	Basic Consolidated data (ds111.2) updates suspended

NCAR has been obtaining this dataset from NCDC, who get it from ECMWF.
The person we deal with at NCDC has recently become very ill, and although
someone else there will probably take over this task, things will likely
be rather chaotic for a while.  Because of this, we expect that our ds111.2 
data updates will be delayed for several months.  I'll send out a
newsletter when we get the next update;  please don't ask me to predict
when we'll get it.
===
	New dataset, ds111.5:  year-month means based on ds111.2

In response to many, many requests, I have computed monthly means from
the Basic Consolidated Datasets (ds111.2) and put them into a new
dataset, ds111.5.  Each grid in this dataset is the average of all grids 
of that data type during that month of that year, at either 0Z or 12Z.
Grids which were flagged as suspect or bad by Kevin Trenberth in
his Tech. Note TN-373+STR (discussed in the previous newsletter) were
not included in the computation of averages.

This dataset can be read with the access code for ds111.2:  note that
in the GRIB Section 1 header the date given is the first day of the month,
the time range indicator is 123 (indicating an average of uninitialized
values), and the time unit and time2 are 1 and 24 respectively (indicating 
that averaged values are at 24-hour intervals).  The number averaged may
be different from the number of days in the month because of rejection
of bad grids.

If you are planning to use the data on NCAR's Cray, you can obtain the 
listing of the volume serial numbers containing the data from the file 
datasets/ds111.5/MASTER, via anonymous FTP to ncardata.ucar.edu.  This 
file is also on the Mass Store under the name /DSS/D/DS1115.  There
are two volumes for each year of record, one for 0Z and one for 12Z
grids.
===
	Elevations derived from surface geopotential in ds111.2 are
		  available via FTP

A set of elevation values generated from the surface geopotential field
in ds111.2 has been placed in the ncardata.ucar.edu anonymous FTP area,
in the file datasets/ds111.2/elev_ecmwf.  The file landsea_ecmwf, in the
same directory, contains the land/sea mask from ds111.2.  Both files
are in ASCII.  The program elevread.f, in the same directory, will read 
these files.  
===
	Apparent missing grids in ds111.0 are really there

The problem with apparent missing grids in ds111.0 has been determined
to be an artifact of the inventory software.  If you use this dataset
and encounter missing grids after 9/17/91, please let me know the dates
and field codes for the missing grids.

============================================================================

If you would like to be taken off this mailing list, please contact me.
If you are interested in ordering any ECMWF/TOGA data, or any other data
from NCAR's archives, please contact me.  I can be reached at
ilana@ncar.ucar.edu or by phone at (303)497-1214.

Ilana Stern
Data Support Section
National Center for Atmospheric Research