An Introduction to Atmospheric and Oceanographic Data

This IA will describe, in very general terms, the datasets most commonly used to study the atmosphere-ocean system and the formats used for archival. The datasets include observations from conventional meteorological sources such as stations and ships, from satellites, and analyzed grids produced at operational weather forecast centers.

Detailed descriptions of instruments, methodologies and relative quality is not attempted. Rather, the focus is upon the broad characteristics of the data sources and the datasets. The characteristics not only include the observed variables and their spatial and temporal extent but also common problems, data limitations and sources of error.