Abstract:
The First ISCCP Regional Experiments have been designed to improve
data products and cloud/radiation parameterizations used in general
circulation models (GCMs). Specifically, the goals of FIRE are (1) to
improve basic understanding of the interaction of physical processes
in determining life cycles of cirrus and marine stratocumulus systems
and the radiative properties of these clouds during
... their life cycles
and (2) to investigate the interrelationships between the ISCCP data,
GCM parameterizations, and higher space and time resolution cloud
data.
To-date, four intensive field-observation periods were planned and
executed: a cirrus IFO (October 13 - November 2, 1986); a marine
stratocumulus IFO off the southwestern coast of California (June 29 -
July 20, 1987); a second cirrus IFO in southeastern Kansas (November
13 - December 7, 1991); and a second marine stratocumulus IFO in the
eastern North Atlantic Ocean (June 1 - June 28, 1992). Each mission
combined coordinated satellite, airborne, and surface observations
with modeling studies to investigate the cloud properties and physical
processes of the cloud systems.
These files are calculations of the weekly solar irradiance at the
surface, based on observations by the METEOSAT. The file naming
convention is:
eshsexx.fis where xx is the week number of 1992.
These files are: I2 pixels, 376 pixels/row, 326 rows. Each pixel
has a spatial resolution of 0.04 degrees.
The header of each file claims there are two channels, although
the provided documentation states that there is only one channel
per file.
The units are: flux [tenths of Joule/cm^2] 
