10 January 1994

TOGA COARE Surface Data

The files in this directory contain surface observations from
the NMC decode of standard GTS realtime transmissions.  This
directory is a temporary test setup for distribution of data
taken during the TOGA-COARE period, November 1992 - February 1993.
All data in the NMC decode for the region 30S to 30N and 90E to
160W were selected for these files.  Note that NMC longitudes
are given in degrees west.  Some observations, especially for
stations in blocks 97 and 98 are known to be missing from the
NMC decode.

Each data file contains data for one month and one data type.
"buoy" files contain buoy reports, "ship" files contain ship
reports, and "land" files contain land station data. The land reports
are divided into files with the 0,6,12,18 reports (land6) and
the reports from 3,9,15, and 21 Z (land3).  Ship and Buoy data
in the COADS set is more complete and of better overall quality.
Files may be standard UNIX compressed (.Z) to save space and reduce
transmission time.

The file "format_on29" is a detailed description of the data format.
The file "format_on124" contains more information on the surface data.
Most details of the format are handled by the read program "adpsfc.f".
The data files differ slightly from the format description in that
each report is one ASCII record.  The format description contains
information on units, report types, quality flags, etc.

Data for other periods and areas are available for cost of copying from
the Data Support Section (joseph@ncar.ucar.edu or datahelp@ncar.ucar.edu).