First ISCCP Regional Experiment (FIRE) Atlantic Stratocumulus Transition Experiment (ASTEX) ECMWF Surface Diagnostics

A special set of analysis products for the Atlantic Stratocumulus Transition Experiment (ASTEX) region during June 1-28, 1992 was prepared by Ernst Klinker and Tony Hollingsworth of the European Centre for Medium-range Forecasting (ECMWF), and reformatted by Chris Bretherton of Univ. of Washington. These analyses, or more correctly initializations and very short range forecasts using the ECMWF T213L30 operational model, incorporate routine observations from the global network and special soundings from ASTEX that were sent to ECMWFduring ASTEX via the GTS telecommunication system. About 650 special soundings were incorporated, including nearly all soundings from Santa Maria, Porto Santo, and the French ship Le Suroit, most of the soundings taken on the Valdivia and Malcolm Baldridge, and almost none of the soundings from the Oceanus. Surface reports from the research ships were also incorporated into the analyses after the first week of the experiment. Aircraft soundings were not included in the analyses. ECMWF has requested that anyone making use of this data set acknowledge them, and that those investigators publishing researchthat makes more than casual use of this data set contact Ernst Klinker or Tony Hollingsworth.The data have been decoded by Chris Bretherton into ASCII files, one for each horizontal field at a given level and base time. All data have the same horizontal resolution of 1.25 degrees in latitude and longitude and correspond to base (initialization) times of 00, 06, 12, or 18Z. Different fields have different lat/lon ranges and sets of available vertical levels, as tabulated below. Also, some fields are instantaneous (I) while others are accumulated (A) over the first 6 hours of a forecast initialized at the base time. This is tabulated in the 'time range' column below. Instantaneous fields are bestcompared with data at the base time, while accumulated fields are bestcompared with data three hours after the base time.Data Set Name ECMWF ECMWF Time Field Units field ID# range abbrev.----------- ------ ----- ----- ----- -----SURFACE DIAG LSP 142 A Large scale precipitation m/(6 hr) CP 143 A Convective precipitation m/(6 hr) BLD 145 A Boundary layer dissipation W/m^2 SSHF 146 A Surface sensible heat flux W/m^2 SLHF 147 A Surface latent heat flux W/m^2 TCC 164 I Total cloud cover 0-1 10U 165 I 10 meter u m/s 10V 166 I 10 meter v m/s 2T 167 I 2 meter temperature K 2D 168 I 2 meter dewpoint temperature K SSR 176 A Surface solar radiation W/m^2 STR 177 A Surface thermal radiation W/m^2 TSR 178 A Top solar radiation W/m^2 TTR 179 A Top thermal radiation W/m^2 EWSS 180 A U-stress N/m^2 NSSS 181 A V-stress N/m^2 E 182 A Evaporation m (H2O) CCC 185 I Convective cloud cover 0-1 LCC 186 I Low cloud cover 0-1 MCC 187 I Medium cloud cover 0-1 HCC 188 I High cloud cover 0-1 TSRU 208 I Top solar radiation upward W/m^2 TTRU 209 I Top thermal radiation upward W/m^2 TSUC 210 I Top solar radiation upward clear sky(lat/lon range: 35W to 05W, 20N to 45N; at surface pressure)The ECMWF field abbreviation, ID#, field description and units are taken directly from ECMWF Code Table 2, in case you ever need to consult with ECMWF about this data set.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer Earthdata Forum
Last Updated June 8, 2026, 22:00 (UTC)
Created April 1, 2025, 15:43 (UTC)
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
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harvest_source_id b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title Science Discovery Engine
identifier 10.5067/ASDC_DAAC/FIRE/0027
license https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified 2026-06-03T16:52:49Z
programCode {026:000}
publisher NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 5e740e582c5ceb10d60dc4b86e0ad8bf1327bca8985818e39c61256210f2c1fb
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial ["CARTESIAN", [{"Boundary": {"Points": [{"Latitude": 19, "Longitude": -36}, {"Latitude": 19, "Longitude": -4}, {"Latitude": 46, "Longitude": -4}, {"Latitude": 46, "Longitude": -36}, {"Latitude": 19, "Longitude": -36}]}}]]
temporal 1992-06-01/1992-06-28
theme {"Earth Science"}