ISLSCP Initiative II | Related Pages |
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ISLSCP Initiative II Home General Data Overview Hydrology Data Overview |
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ISLSCP Initiative II |
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Hydrology, Soils, & Topography Data
The University of New Hampshire (UNH)/Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC) composite runoff fields combines simulated water balance model runoff estimates derived from climate forcing with monitored river discharge. It can be viewed as a data assimilation applied in a water balance model context (conceptually similar to the commonly used 4DDA techniques used in meteorological modeling).
This dataset received mixed reviews during the process of deciding the inclusion of various data sets to the ISLSCP II data collections. The majority of the concerns regarding this data set stemed from being a combination of model results and observations. Some reviewers expressed concerns about potential misuse if the users are not fully aware of the nature of the compositing process and don't realize how much is model output and how much is based on observation. The scientific advisory board of the ISLSCP II data compilation opted for the inclusion of this dataset due to its uniqueness.
Data Provider: Balázs M. Fekete, Charles J. Vörösmarty
 Data Files (ISLSCP II Disc #1) |
 Data Set Documentation |
 Image Viewing Tutorial |
The files have been compressed using the PKZip program. Each uncompressed file contains space-delimited ASCII text. The 1-degree files are 360 values per line and 180 lines of data. The half-degree files are 720 values per line and 360 lines of data. Each line is terminated by a newline character. The data are structured so that the upperleft corner of the first pixel is located at 90 North latitude and 180 West longitude. Missing data is encoded as -99 for water and -88 for land.
Each file is named based on the month and year of the data.
Example: comp_runnoff_hd_19860100.asc is the composite runoff from January 1986.
Related Pages:
ISLSCP Initiative II Home
General Data Overview
Hydrology Data Overview
UNH/GRDC Composite Monthly Runoff
Revision Date: October 6, 2004