Legates / MSU Precipitation Climatology

Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Metadata:

• Identification_Information
• Data_Quality_Information
• Spatial_Reference_Information
• Distribution_Information
• Metadata_Reference_Information

Identification_Information:

Citation:

Citation_Information:

Originator: John M. Wallace, Todd P. Mitchell, Alexis K.-H. Lau

Publication_Date: Unknown

Title: Legates / MSU Precipitation Climatology

Edition:

Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form:

Series_Information:

Series_Name:

Issue_Identification:

Publication_Information:

Publication_Place:

Publisher: University of Washington JISAO

Other_Citation_Details:

Online_Linkage: http://www.jisao.washington.edu/legates_msu/

Description:

Abstract:

This WWW page contains analyses and data for a global precipitation climatology that has been produced at JISAO. The spatial resolution of this climatology is 2.5 degrees latitude-longitude. The land data for this climatology is taken from the Legates and Willmott (1990), which is based on historical rain gauge measurements. The ocean precipitation estimates are from the Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) (Spencer 1993) for the years 1979 to 1992. Spencer and collaborators developed a new MSU precipitation product ("Limb90"), and I got part way through merging it with the Legates and Willmott climatology. This work was never satisfactorily finished, but it is linked here. MSU has difficulty differentiating sea ice from very heavy rainfall, and it is pretty difficult to remove the erroneous gridpoints in a simple manner. [Summary Extracted from the Legates / MSU Data Set Home Page]

Purpose:

Not Available

Supplemental_Information:

REFERENCE: Legates, D. R. and C. J. Willmott, 1990. Mean seasonal and spatial variability in gauge-corrected, global precipitation. Int. J. Climatology, 10, 111-127.

Supplemental_Information:

REFERENCE: Spencer, R. W., 1993: Global oceanic precipitation from the MSU during 1979-91 and comparisons to other climatologies. J. Climate, 6, 1301-1326.

Time_Period_of_Content:

Time_Period_Information:

Range_of_Dates/Times:

Beginning_Date: 19790101

Ending_Date: 19921231

Currentness_Reference:Unknown

Status:

Progress: Complete

Maintenance_and_Update_Frequency: As needed

Spatial_Domain:

Description_of_Geographic_Extent:

Bounding_Coordinates:

West_Bounding_Coordinate: -180.0

East_Bounding_Coordinate: 180.0

North_Bounding_Coordinate: 90.0

South_Bounding_Coordinate: -90.0

Keywords:

Theme:

Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: GCMD SCIENCE PARAMETERS

Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: GCMD PLATFORM

Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: GCMD INSTRUMENT

Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: ISO TOPIC CATEGORY

Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: DATA SET LANGUAGE

Theme_Keyword: EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > PRECIPITATION > PRECIPITATION AMOUNT

Theme_Keyword: EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > PRECIPITATION > RAIN

Theme_Keyword: FIXED OBSERVATION STATIONS

Theme_Keyword: METEOROLOGICAL STATIONS

Theme_Keyword: RAIN GAUGES

Theme_Keyword: MSU > MICROWAVE SOUNDING UNIT

Theme_Keyword: CLIMATOLOGY/METEOROLOGY/ATMOSPHERE

Theme_Keyword: ENGLISH

Place:

Place_Keyword_Thesaurus: GCMD

Place_Keyword: GEOGRAPHIC REGION > GLOBAL

Place_Keyword: GEOGRAPHIC REGION > GLOBAL LAND

Place_Keyword: GEOGRAPHIC REGION > GLOBAL OCEAN

Temporal:

Temporal_Keyword_Thesaurus: GCMD

Temporal_Keyword: Monthly Climatology

Temporal_Keyword: Monthly Climatology

Access_Constraints: Not Available

Use_Constraints:

Please cite the data set originator if you use this data.

Point_of_Contact:

Contact_Information:

Contact_Person_Primary:

Contact_Person: TODD MITCHELL

Contact_Person_Primary:

Contact_Person: SCOTT A. RITZ

Contact_Position: TECHNICAL CONTACT

Contact_Position: INVESTIGATOR

Contact_Position: TECHNICAL CONTACT

Contact_Address:

Address_Type: Mailing and Physical Address

Contact_Address:

Address_Type: Mailing and Physical Address

Address: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Address: Global Change Master Directory

City: Greenbelt

State_or_Province: Maryland

Postal_Code: 20771

Country: USA

Contact_Voice_Telephone: 301-614-5126

Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: 301-614-5268

Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: mitchell@atmos.washington.edu

Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: Scott.A.Ritz@nasa.gov

Data_Quality_Information:

Attribute_Accuracy:

Attribute_Accuracy_Report:

Not Available

Logical_Consistency_Report:

Not Available

Completeness_Report:

Not Available

Lineage:

Process_Step:

Process_Description:

Not Available

Process_Date: Unknown

Spatial_Reference_Information:

Horizontal_Coordinate_System_Definition:

Geographic:

Latitude_Resolution: 2.5 degrees

Longitude_Resolution: 2.5 degrees

Geographic_Coordinate_Units: Decimal degrees

Distribution_Information:

Distributor:

Contact_Information:

Contact_Organization_Primary:

Contact_Organization: UWA/ATMOS/JISAO/CSES > Center for Science in the Earth System, Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington

Contact_Person: TODD MITCHELL

Contact_Position: DATA CENTER CONTACT

Contact_Address:

Address_Type: Mailing and Physical Address

Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: mitchell@atmos.washington.edu

Resource_Description: JISAO_LEGATES_MSU

Distribution_Liability:

Not Available

Standard_Order_Process:

Digital_Form:

Digital_Transfer_Information:

Format_Name: netCDF, ASCII

Digital_Transfer_Option:

Online_Option:

Computer_Contact_Information:

Network_Address:

Network_Resource_Name:

http://www.cses.washington.edu/

Access_Instructions:

DATA CENTER URL

Digital_Transfer_Option:

Online_Option:

Computer_Contact_Information:

Network_Address:

Network_Resource_Name:

http://www.jisao.washington.edu/legates_msu/

Access_Instructions:

Access the Legates / MSU Precipitation Climatology data sets.

Digital_Transfer_Option:

Online_Option:

Computer_Contact_Information:

Network_Address:

Network_Resource_Name:

http://dss.ucar.edu/datasets/ds236.0/

Access_Instructions:

Access the The Legates and Willmott rainfall climatology is available in ASCII format in 0.5-degree latitude-longitude resolution from the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Fees: No Fee

Metadata_Reference_Information:

Metadata_Date: 20041008

Metadata_Review_Date: 20120924

Metadata_Contact:

Contact_Information:

Contact_Person_Primary:

Contact_Person: GCMD User Support Office

Contact_Organization: NASA Global Change Master Directory

Contact_Address:

Address_Type: Mailing and Physical Address

Address: Not Available

City: Lanham

State_or_Province: MD

Postal_Code: 20706

Country: USA

Contact_Voice_Telephone: Not Available

Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: gcmduso@gcmd.gsfc.nasa.gov

Metadata_Standard_Name: FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata

Metadata_Standard_Version: FGDC-STD-001-1998

Metadata_Time_Convention: local time