The International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS Release 2.4)

ICOADS is developed and maintained as a cooperative effort between NSF's National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): specifically its Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL), in conjunction with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) of the University of Colorado, and its National Climatic Data Center (NCDC).

ICOADS is a collection of global marine surface observations for 1784-02 - 2008-12 and monthly summary statistics of the observations currently for 1800 - 2007-05. The official Release 2.4 period of observation data is 1784-02 through 2007-05 and all data following the end date should be considered preliminary and are subject to change. The observations are taken primarily from ships (merchant, ocean research, fishing, navy, etc) and moored and drifting buoys. Many sources of real time and delayed mode data are included.   The data, documentation, and a wide assortment of ancillary information are available from the contributing organizations. The ICOADS highlights at NCAR, CDC/CIRES, and NCDC are briefly outlined below.

• National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)


• Copies of all ICOADS current and past archive versions
• File identification on the MSS, software, and documentation for NCAR computer users are given in separate datasets for the Observations and Monthly Summary Statistics of the observations in 1° and 2° areas.
• Online data request forms. All data is available to the public and can be requested with these convenient forms or by direct email.
• Questions regarding availability and ICOADS in general can be directed to Zaihua Ji.


• Physical Science Division/ESRL


• The official ICOADS WWW site. The site is the focus for the ICOADS project and includes chronology and news, project description, available products, documentation, software, metadata, publications and meeting announcements.
• Access to ICOADS monthly summary data products in netCDF format and online display and product subsetting, with output in various formats.
• ICOADS-like archives for the most popular variables are constructed from real time data sources and are available online. These data are provided to supplement ICOADS to near real time dates.
• Questions regarding availability and ICOADS in general can be directed to Scott Woodruff.


• The National Climatic Data Center(NCDC)


• Real-time ICOADS data services are under development