National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) Monthly Means

SOURCE: Data Support Section Dataset ds718.5, and NOAA-CIRES Climate Diagnostics Center

FORMAT: netCDF (corrected* and after 1997 datasets)
	CCM1 History Tape (uncorrected datasets)
        

GRID: Corrected* Dataset:
      --------------------
      Global - 2.5 degree (144 x 73) (missing values near poles)
      Global - 2.5 degree (144 x 73) (extrapolated)
      Global - T63        (192 x 96) 
      
      Uncorrected Datasets:
      --------------------
      Global - T42 Gaussian (128 x 64) and 2.5 degree (144 x 72)


LEVELS: Single Level

FIELDS: Description     	                Name            Units   
        ----------------------------------------------------------------
	Outgoing longwave radiation             OLR             W /m^2  

TIMES:  One mean per month.

Current holdings: 

      Corrected* Datasets:
      --------------------
      January 1979 - December 1999 (252 time steps -- 
            Mar-Dec 1999 filled with missing = 1.e+36) 

      Uncorrected Datasets:
      --------------------
      June 1974 - January 1994 (236 time steps per file; Data were 
         not available from March through December 1978, and these 
         months have been coded as missing = 1.e+36)

      January 1999 - February 2002 (38 time steps)

------------------------
The following files are available on the MSS:

/CTSAT/NOAA/2.5DG/OLR_corrected_7999.nc on 2.5 degree grid
/CTSAT/NOAA/2.5DG/OLR_corrected_7999_extrap.nc on 2.5 degree grid
/CTSAT/NOAA/T63/OLR_corrected_7999_extrap.nc on T63 grid
/CTSAT/NOAA/T63/OLR_CDC_9902.nc on T63 grid
/CTSAT/NOAA/T42/CCM1H/7494	on T42 grid
/CTSAT/NOAA/2.5DG/CCM1H/7494	on 2.5 degree grid

------------------------
* Corrections:
The OLR contains inhomogeneities associated with different
satellites and their different equatorial crossing times and orbital drift,
and we use a version for which some of these have been adjusted with results
from  Waliser and Zhou [1997]. We apply the correction to the region
between +/- 30 degrees (through July 1996 only) and taper the correction to
zero near +/- 30 degrees to smooth any discontinuities that might be
introduced as follows: the region between +/- 27.5 degrees latitude is fully
corrected; the correction at +/- 30 degrees is weighted 2/3 and also applied at
+/- 32.5 degrees with 1/3 weight.  There is no correction poleward of 32.5 degrees.

For more information about the corrections, please see:

Trenberth, K. E., D. P. Stepaniak and J. M. Caron, 2002:
Interannual variations in the atmospheric heat budget. 
J. Geophys. Res.,  107, D8, 10.1029/2000D000297.
Comments on Data

Other Products Derived from this Dataset:

• Long-Term Means (Climatologies)

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