Access to the VEMAP Phase I Data Files

Note for Macintosh Users

If you are using an early version of Netscape on a Macintosh you may have difficulty downloading files. This page describes how to ftp files directly from our anonymous ftpsite.

Documentation

Monthly Files

Monthly files contain gridded monthly and annual values for VEMAP variables (13 files per variable).

Daily Files

Daily files contain a one year time-series (365 values) for all non-background grid cells. The sequentially written records include cell latitude and longitude along with the daily values. Daily files are written in binary format and may be read with the FORTRAN read program found in: /vdaily/biread.f and /vprograms/biread.f

Geographic Files

Geographic files contain gridded information about each grid cell, including cell latitude, longitude, elevation, land area, and vegetation.

Scenario Files

Scenario files are organized by model name (General Circulation Model (GCM) or nested regional climate model). Scenario files describe the monthly variation between a doubled CO2 climate and the base VEMAP climate. The gridded variables are expressed as either change ratios or change differences.

Soil Files

Soil files describe various characteristics for each grid cell (e.g., texture, bulk density, water holding capacity, soil organic carbon, etc.). These characteristics are distributed within three categories: mineral, organic, and total (combined mineral and organic).

Site Files

Site files contain monthly climate data and scenarios in column format. We developed this time-sequential format to facilitate data extraction for individual stations. README files included under the /siteFiles directory give instructions on how to find a particular grid cell. Site files omit background grid cells, with a new line for each non-background grid cell (3261 records). Each record lists geographic information about the associated grid point (latitude, longitude, elevation, state identification number, and vegetation type) followed by 12 monthly values (January-December).

Bulk transfer

We have archived multiple files into GNU compressed UNIX tarfiles for efficient data transfer. For example, all 12 gridded monthly maximum temperature files are stored in TX_MON.tar.gz (a '.gz' file suffix indicates that the tarfile has been compressed using the GNU software utility, 'gzip')

Tim Kittel
kittel@ucar.edu
(303) 497-1606

Nan Rosenbloom
nanr@ucar.edu
(303) 497-1617

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