Updated Cloud Assessment
Chairs: Claudia Stubenrauch (2006–2023) and
Stefan Kinne (2008–2023)
Assessing the reliability of global, long-term cloud data sets. The GEWEX Cloud Assessment (2005-2012, Stubenrauch et al., 2013) provided the first coordinated intercomparison of publicly available, standard global cloud products.
The database has been updated since the first assessment. The updated GEWEX cloud assessment database includes monthly cloud property statistics of 11 cloud climatologies, based on measurements from five different sensor types, and contains data until 2020. Results as well as examples of how to use this database are published in a review article by Stubenrauch et al., 2024 (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-024-09824-0).
Available products:
Database available at https://climserv.ipsl.polytechnique.fr/gewexca/
Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP)
Chair: Robert Adler
(2005–present)
Publications
Assessment of Global Precipitation Products (May 2008)
GPCP produces ongoing, long-term, globally-complete gridded estimates of precipitation. It merges precipitation estimates computed from satellite-based microwave, infrared, and sounding data with analyses of in situ gauge data. Monthly, pentad, and daily data sets are available for time period of 1979–present.
Available products:
Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) Clearinghouse: monthly, pentad (five-yearly), and daily precipitation analyses
GEWEX Integrated Product
Contact: Dr. Paula Brown
The GEWEX Integrated Product (IP) is the culmination of many GDAP-sponsored data product activities to consolidate the core components of the water and energy cycle into a single consistent dataset on a uniform grid. The IP combines precipitation, clouds, upwelling and downwelling radiative fluxes, turbulent fluxes from GPCP, the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP), the Surface Radiation Budget (SRB), LandFlux, and SeaFlux with ancillary surface characteristics, aerosol, and water vapor transports into a single uniform product on a 3-hour, 1-degree equal area grid spanning the 18 year period from 1998 to 2015. While the IP does not ensure consistency in all assumptions across all products, it represents our best effort at synthesizing the diverse products into a coherent set of water and energy parameters.
Available Products:
All data is currently being hosted at Colorado State University and is available via anonymous ftp server at: ftp://rain.atmos.colostate.edu/pub/pbrown/GEWEX_IP_2019/. The data is archived in 3-hourly data files in NetCDF format.
Publications
- Kummerow, C., Brown, P. Adler, R., Kinne, S., Rossow, W., Stackhouse, P., Clayson, C.A., McCabe, M. Miralles, D. and Jimenez, C. (2019), The GDAP Integrated Product, GEWEX Quarterly, Vol. 29, No.3, 3-6. https://gewex.org/gewex-content/files_mf/1568309644Aug2019.pdf
International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP)
Chair: Dr. George Tselioudis (2017–present)
Publications
ISCCP produces a continuous global data set of the Earth’s radiance using cloud radiance data from geostationary and polar orbiting weather satellites.
Available products: The Cloud Properties – International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) H-Series Climate Data Record (CDR)
SeaFlux
Chair: Carol Anne Clayson
(2006–present)
SeaFlux produced a high-resolution satellite-based data set of surface turbulent fluxes over the global oceans. The data is currently available in two sets.
Available Products:
SeaFlux Data Products V1
The SeaFlux Data Products dataset consists of estimates of ocean surface latent and sensible heat fluxes, 2m and 10m wind speed, 2m and 10m air temperature, 2m and 10m air humidity, and skin sea surface temperature. This data product was created by using the SeaFlux V3 model. These data are available globally from January 1, 1988 through December 31, 2018 in netCDF-4 format.
NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) of Ocean Heat Fluxes, Version 2
The Ocean Heat fluxes Climate Data Record (CDR) is one of three CDRs that make up the NOAA Ocean Surface Bundle (OSB). They can be used to describe essential aspects of the air-sea exchange. This CDR leverages the parameters of surface atmospheric properties and sea surface temperature to calculate the latent and sensible heat fluxes from a neural-network emulator of the TOGA-COARE Bulk Air-Sea Flux Algorithm. The final record is a 3-hourly 0.25-degree resolution grid over the global ice-free oceans from January 1988 to August 2021.
Surface Radiation Budget Project (SRB)
Chair: Paul Stackhouse
(1997–present)
Publications
SRB produces a multi-decadal global data set of the Earth’s radiation budget (shortwave and longwave) using ISCCP data, other GEWEX ancillary products and radiative transfer models.
Available products: NASA GEWEX Surface Radiation Budget Data
