ISLSCP II Reanalysis Near-Surface Meteorology Data

This data set for the ISLSCP Initiative II data collection provides near surface meteorological variables, fluxes of heat, moisture and momentum at the surface, and land surface state variables, all with a spatial resolution of 1 degree in both latitude and longitude. There are four temporal categories of data: time invariant and monthly mean annual cycle fields (together referred to as "fixed" fields), monthly mean fields, monthly 3-hourly diurnal, and 3-hourly fields. Two types of variables exist in this data; instantaneous fields (primarily state variables), and average fields (primarily flux fields expressed as a rate).

The Center for Ocean-Land Atmosphere Studies (COLA) near-surface data set for ISLSCP II was derived from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)/Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Model Inter-comparison Project (AMIP-II) reanalysis (http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/wesley/reanalysis2/), covering the years from 1979-2003. The data set for ISLSCP II covers the period from 1986 to 1995. The purpose of the reanalysis was to provide an improved version of the original NCEP/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) reanalysis for General Circulation Model (GCM) validation. To co-register the NCEP/DOE reanalysis on the ISLSCP 1-degree grid, the reanalysis data set was regridded from its native T62 Gaussian grid) resolution (192 x 94 grid boxes globally) to 1-degree ISLSCP II required resolution.

There are 136 compressed (.tar.gz) data files with this data set. When extrapolated, the individual data files are in ASCII (.asc) format.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer Earthdata Forum
Last Updated June 23, 2026, 00:14 (UTC)
Created April 1, 2025, 16:45 (UTC)
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
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harvest_source_id b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title Science Discovery Engine
identifier 10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1226
license https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified 2026-06-15T22:16:00Z
programCode {026:000}
publisher ORNL_DAAC
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash cddba548a66c7706472ffee7f0632a8692fa2a00418f631ed0d30a4be530685d
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial ["CARTESIAN", [{"WestBoundingCoordinate": -180.0, "NorthBoundingCoordinate": 90.0, "EastBoundingCoordinate": 180.0, "SouthBoundingCoordinate": -90.0}]]
temporal 1986-01-01/1995-12-31
theme {"Earth Science"}