Guide to Conducting Data Set Quality Assessments
Data Set Quality Assessments: Needs, Benefits, Best Practices and Governance (December 2015)
This document addresses the need for systematic assessments of the quality of data sets used in various applications such as climate services and climate science, including their use in the evaluation of climate model performance.
GDAP Assessments
Joint IPWG/GDAP Precipitation Assessment (June 2021)
Chairs: Rémy Roca and Ziad Haddad
Reviewing the current state of precipitation products, including assessments of sub-daily global satellite precipitation products, discussions of various climate applications of precipitation products, and deliberations on emerging directions and the future of precipitation products.
Water Vapor Assessment Report (November 2017)
Chairs: Marc Schröder and Lei Shi
Quantifying the state of the art in water vapor products being constructed for climate applications.
For more information see also the GEWEX Water Vapor Assessment (GVAP) website.
Precipitation Assessment Report (May 2008)
Chairs: Arnold Gruber and Vincenzo Levizzani
Evaluating the reliability of available, global, long-term precipitation data products in depicting the variations of precipitation at larger-than-weather scales with a special emphasis on the GPCP product.
Cloud Assessment Report (November 2012)
Chairs: Claudia Stubenrauch (2006–2023) and Stefan Kinne (2008–2023)
Assessing the reliability of global, long-term cloud data sets.
Database available at Cloud Assessment website.
Updated Cloud Assessment (February 2024)
Updated Database available at: https://gewexca.aeris-data.fr/
Radiative Flux Assessment (December 2012)
Chair: Paul Stackhouse
(2004–Present)
Providing a forum for consistent analysis of long-term radiative flux products, primarily top-of-atmosphere and surface fluxes, to establish a foundation for better global radiation budget analysis.
Aerosol Assessment
Chairs: Sundar Christopher
(2008–Present) and
Jeffrey Reid
(2008–Present)
Assessing the quality and compatibility of global aerosol products with a focus on the Global Aerosol Climatology Project (GACP).
Continuous Intercomparison of Radiation Codes (CIRC)
Co-Chairs: Lazaros Oreopoulos and Eli Mlawer
CIRC is intended as an evolving and regularly updated reference source for evaluation against “line-by-line” standards of radiative transfer codes used in Global Climate Models and other atmospheric applications. CIRC differs from previous intercomparisons in that it relies on an observationally validated catalogue of cases. It is currently completing Phase I.
Global Aerosol Climatology Project (GACP)
Chair: Michael Mishchenko
Publications
GACP produced a 20-year climatology of aerosol forcing data from satellite observations and field observations for use in climate models.
Available products: NASA/GISS Archive
Intercomparison of 3-D Radiation Codes (ICR3)
Chair: Robert Cahalan
Publications
ICR3 compares the performance of these 3-D RT codes used in a variety of current scientific work in the atmospheric sciences.
Available products: Cases
LandFlux
Chairs: Carlos Jimenez and Matthew McCabe
Publications
LandFlux produces a high-resolution satellite-based data set of land-surface turbulent fluxes of heat and water.
Available products: LandFlux data, WACMOS-ET data and Multi-year global merged benchmark synthesis product of evapotranspiration
Radiation Transfer Model Intercomparison (RAMI)
Chair: Nadine Gobron
RAMI systematically compares canopy radiative transfer models under controlled experimental conditions, generation of reference solutions for shortwave radiative quantities in 1D and 3D vegetation > canopies.
Available products: RAMI Online Model Checker
