CLIMATIC DATA & ANALYSIS - WORLD

INTRODUCTION:

THE GOAL OF CLIMATE ANALYSIS IS TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE EARTH’S PAST AND PRESENT
CLIMATE, AND TO PREDICT FUTURE CLIMATE RESPONSE TO CHANGES IN NATURAL AND HUMAN-
INDUCED FACTORS, SUCH AS THE SUN, GREENHOUSE GASES (E.G., WATER VAPOR, CARBON DIOXIDE
AND METHANE), AND AEROSOLS (E.G., FROM DUST STORMS, POLLUTION, FIRES, SEA SPRAY OR
VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS). CLIMATE ANALYSIS STUDIES ARE ROUTINELY CARRIED OUT USING A MIX OF
DATA FROM DIVERSE SOURCES INCLUDING HISTORICAL CLIMATE DATA, CURRENT AND PAST SATELLITE
INSTRUMENTS, FIELD CAMPAIGNS, AND OUTPUTS FROM REGIONAL AND GLOBAL NUMERICAL MODELS.
THE ENERGY BUDGET OF THE EARTH IS DETERMINED BY THE ENERGY INPUT FROM THE SUN,
WHAT FRACTION OF IT IS REFLECTED AND ABSORBED BY THE EARTH SYSTEM, AND THERMAL EMISSION
FROM THE EARTH ITSELF. LABORATORY SCIENTISTS STUDY THE TOTAL SOLAR IRRADIANCE AT THE TOP
OF THE ATMOSPHERE USING SATELLITE MEASUREMENTS, AS WELL AS THE SOLAR IRRADIANCE AT THE
EARTH’S SURFACE USING PYRANOMETERS AND OTHER GROUND-BASED INSTRUMENTS.  LONG-TERM,
HOMOGENEOUS MEASUREMENTS OF BOTH QUANTITIES PLAY A CRUCIAL ROLE IN CLIMATE RESEARCH. 
THE END GOAL OF THESE STUDIES IS TO PRODUCE MORE ACCURATE DATASETS FOR DETECTING
CHANGES IN THE ENERGY BALANCE ACROSS THE GLOBE. THIS IN TURN WOULD ALLOW US TO MORE
ACCURATELY UNDERSTAND CHANGES IN THE EARTH’S RADIATIVE FORCING AND TO STUDY THE
SUBSEQUENT RESPONSE AND VARIABILITY OF THE CLIMATE SYSTEM.
LAB SCIENTISTS USE DIRECT OBSERVATIONS, MODEL ANALYSES, AND VARIOUS SATELLITE
MEASUREMENTS TO STUDY THE VARIABILITY OF THE GLOBAL HYDROLOGIC (WATER) CYCLE, INCLUDING
CHANGES IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF WATER VAPOR, PRECIPITATION, EVAPORATION, AND MOISTURE
TRANSPORT AS AFFECTED BY NATURALLY OCCURRING CLIMATE FLUCTUATIONS SUCH AS THE EL NINO
SOUTHERN OSCILLATION (ENSO), THE QUASI-BIENNIAL OSCILLATION (QBO), AND OTHERS.
VARIATIONS IN RAINFALL AND CLOUD CHARACTERISTICS, AS WELL AS THE OCCURRENCE OF EXTREME
RAINFALL ASSOCIATED WITH SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE CHANGE, ARE BEING STUDIED USING
TROPICAL RAINFALL MEASURING MISSION (TRMM) AND GLOBAL PRECIPITATION CLIMATOLOGY
PROJECT (GPCP) RAINFALL DATA IN CONJUNCTION WITH OUTPUTS FROM GLOBAL NUMERICAL EARTH-
SYSTEM MODELS.
AEROSOLS ARE NOW RECOGNIZED AS A KEY ELEMENT OF THE CLIMATE SYSTEM. AEROSOLS CAN
BOTH COOL THE EARTH’S SURFACE BY REFLECTING LIGHT BACK INTO SPACE AND HEAT THE
ATMOSPHERE BY ABSORBING SUNLIGHT. AEROSOLS ALSO INTERACT WITH CLOUDS AND MODIFY THEM
IN A WAY THAT CAN LEAD TO FURTHER CHANGES IN THE ENERGY BUDGET.  WHEN DEPOSITED ON
SNOWY SURFACES, AEROSOLS AFFECT SNOW REFLECTIVITY AND THE MELTING PROCESSES. LAB
SCIENTISTS STUDY THE EFFECT OF AEROSOLS ON THE ATMOSPHERIC WATER CYCLE, PARTICULARLY
OVER HIGHLY POPULATED MONSOON REGIONS WHERE LARGE CONCENTRATIONS OF NATURAL AND
ANTHROPOGENIC (HUMAN-PRODUCED) AEROSOLS ARE ENCOUNTERED. USING SATELLITE
MEASUREMENTS OF AEROSOL LOADING, SNOW, TEMPERATURE, AND RAINFALL, COMBINED WITH MODEL
REANALYSIS DATA, LAB SCIENTISTS INVESTIGATE AEROSOL-INDUCED CHANGES IN ATMOSPHERIC
CIRCULATION, SNOW COVER, TEMPERATURE, AND RAINFALL. THEY ALSO STUDY THE LONG-TERM
VARIATION OF ATMOSPHERIC AEROSOL LOADING, INTERCONTINENTAL TRANSPORT OF AEROSOLS, AND
POTENTIAL LONG-TERM CHANGES IN SURFACE AIR POLLUTION AND THEIR EFFECTS.
AN ISSUE THAT MAKES CLIMATE RESEARCH BOTH INTERESTING AND CHALLENGING IS THE
BLENDING OF PHYSICAL PROCESSES WHOSE EVOLUTION IN TIME CAN BE PREDICTED WELL INTO THE
FUTURE, WITH OTHERS NOT SO EASILY PREDICTED. COMPARISONS OF OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE
EARTH'S CLIMATE WITH MODELS OF HOW THE CLIMATE IS EVOLVING MUST TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THIS
INHERENT LACK OF PREDICTABILITY, SOMETIMES REFERRED TO AS “CLIMATE NOISE”. MUCH OF
CLIMATE DATA ANALYSIS DEALS WITH THE SEPARATION OF CLIMATE SIGNALS FROM NOISE. METHODS
HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED TO FILTER OUT CLIMATE NOISE FROM SIGNAL, USING OPTIMAL WEIGHTING OF
OBSERVATIONS AND SIMPLIFIED MODELS OF THE CLIMATE SYSTEM TO COMPARE CLIMATE CHANGE
PREDICTIONS WITH OBSERVED CHANGES. SUCH LINES OF RESEARCH ARE ACTIVELY PURSUED BY LAB
SCIENTISTS.

PROBLEM

THERE ARE A NUMBER OF KEY CHALLENGES AND PROBLEMS RELATED TO MINING CLIMATE DATA
FOR RESEARCH OR DECISION RELEVANT INFORMATION:

VOLUME: THE DEVELOPMENT AND EXPLOSION OF SATELLITE BASED OBSERVATIONS DATASETS

AND DERIVATIVES, AS WELL AS THE EXPONENTIAL INCREASE IN THE VOLUME OF CLIMATE MODEL DATA
HAS RESULTED IN UNPRECEDENTED VOLUMES OF DATA THAT EXCEED THE TYPICAL STORAGE CAPACITY
OF ALL BUT THE MOST HIGHLY RESOURCED INSTITUTIONS, AND ARGUABLY HAVE EXCEEDED THE
ANALYSIS CAPACITY OF CLIMATE SCIENCE GENERALLY.

COMPLEXITY AND DIVERSITY: THE PROLIFERATION OF DATA HAS BEEN PARALLELED BY AN
INCREASE IN COMPLEXITY AND DIVERSITY OF DATA AND DATA PRODUCTION METHODOLOGIES.
OBSERVATIONS ARE NOW DERIVED THROUGH COMPLEX ALGORITHMS AND THE RESULTANT DATA
OFTEN NOT INTUITIVE TO USE. NEW DATA STORAGE FORMATS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED TO RESPOND TO
LARGE DATA SIZE BUT THESE FORMATS OFTEN MAKE USING THE DATA CHALLENGING.

CONTRADICTIONS: WITH DIVERSITY COMES CONTRADICTIONS. ACROSS AFRICA ROUGHLY 16

DIFFERENT OBSERVED RAINFALL PRODUCTS ARE AVAILABLE BUT ANALYSIS OF TRENDS ACROSS THESE
PRODUCTS RESULTS IN A WIDE RANGE OF MESSAGES. THESE CONTRADICTIONS ARE OFTEN NOT
FOREFRONTED IN ANALYSIS, NOT WELL UNDERSTOOD, AND NOT WELL COMMUNICATED.

SOLUTION

SOLUTIONS TO THE CHALLENGED DETAILED ABOVE ARE NOT SIMPLE OR UNIFORM ACROSS
CONTEXTS. HOWEVER, ANALYSIS SOFTWARE HAS A ROLE TO PLAY IN ADDRESSING SOME OF THE
CHALLENGES. IT IS ALSO CLEAR THAT AS DATA VOLUMES AND DIVERSITY GROWS, ANALYSIS
SOFTWARE NEEDS TO EVOLVE APPROPRIATELY. IT IS ALSO CLEAR THAT SOFTWARE CANNOT REPLACE
SOUND CLIMATE SCIENCE UNDERSTANDING. SOFTWARE IS MERELY A TOOL TO SUPPORT CLIMATE
INFORMATION PRODUCTION.
AN EXAMPLE OF ANALYSIS SOFTWARE THAT HAS PLAYED A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN CLIMATE
ANALYSIS, SPECIFICALLY ANALYSIS OF HISTORICAL EXTREMES, IS THE ETCCDI SOFTWARE. THIS CODE,
WRITTEN IN THE R SCRIPTING LANGUAGE ALLOWS FOR THE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF OBSERVED TIME
SERIES IN ORDER TO IDENTIFY KEY STATISTICS SUCH AS TEMPERATURE AND RAINFALL EXTREMES,
DIURNAL TEMPERATURE RANGE, AND MAXIMUM CONSECUTIVE DRY SPELLS. THE ETCCDI INDICES ARE
COMPREHENSIVE AND HAVE BECOME A DEFACTO STANDARD SUITE OF EXTREMES AND MORE GENERAL
CLIMATE STATISTICS. HOWEVER, ARGUABLY THE REAL POWER OF THE INDICES WAS LARGELY
REALISED THROUGH THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE ANALYSIS SOFTWARE WHICH HAS ALLOWED A
DIVERSE COMMUNITY OF RESEARCHERS AND PRACTITIONERS TO APPLY THE ANALYSIS ON THEIR OWN
DATA AND WITHIN THEIR OWN ANALYSIS FRAMEWORKS RATHER THAN RELY ON A SUITE OF PRE
GENERATED DATA.
ANOTHER MORE RECENT EXAMPLE OF SUCH ANALYSIS CODE IS THE OPEN CLIMATE WORKBENCH
ORIGINATED OUT NASA JPL AND FOCUSED ON FACILITATING THE ANALYSIS OF THE CORDEX
DOWNSCALED CLIMATE MODEL DATA. SIMILARLY, THE OPEN CLIMATE GIS (OCGIS) PACKAGE ENABLES
GIS STYLE ANALYSIS OF CLIMATE DATASETS IN RESPONSE TO THE GROWING USE OF GIS MODELING TO
INFORM DECISION MAKING AND THE NEED TO INTEGRATE CLIMATE DATA INTO GIS MODELING, A TASK
THAT HAS TRADITIONALLY BEEN QUITE CHALLENGING.
CLIMATIC DATA & ANALYSIS – TROPIC REGION

INTRODUCTION

VARIOUS ASPECTS OF TROPICAL WEATHER AND CLIMATE AS IT IS UNDERSTOOD TODAY IS

DESCRIBED. WEATHER HAS BEEN FOCUSED ON MID-LATITUDE WEATHER SYSTEMS: FIRST, BECAUSE
MOST EARLY RESEARCHERS CAME FROM WESTERN EUROPE AND EASTERN NORTH AMERICA; AND
SECOND, BECAUSE OF THE RISKS AND CONSEQUENCES OF WEATHER SYSTEMS PREVALENT IN THESE
ZONES. HOWEVER, ALTHOUGH THERE ARE SIMPLE NONSCIENTIFIC DESCRIPTIONS OF WEATHER
EVENTS FROM THE TROPICS GOING BACK HUNDREDS OF YEARS, IT IS ONLY SINCE THE LATE 1960S
THAT MUCH SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH HAS BEEN CARRIED OUT WITHIN THE TROPICAL ZONE. WHAT WE
KNOW OF THE WEATHER (AND, TO SOME EXTENT, THE CLIMATE) OF THE TROPICS REMAINS LIMITED
AND HAS TYPICALLY FOCUSED ON SEVERE WEATHER EVENTS, SUCH AS TROPICAL REVOLVING STORMS
(E.G. EMANUEL, 2005), OR DATA FROM A LIMITED RANGE OF OBSERVING STATIONS. HOWEVER, MANY
FACTORS OF THE DAY-TO-DAY WEATHER ARE IMPORTANT IN THE TROPICS, NOT LEAST FOR AVIATION
AND PUBLIC SAFETY.

FOR INSTANCE, THE PRIMARY PURPOSES OF FORECASTING FOR AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS IN THE
TROPICS ARE SAFETY AND MAXIMIZATION OF EFFICIENCY FOR THE BENEFIT OF PASSENGERS AND
AIRCRAFT OPERATORS. THE MOST ACCURATE AND APPROPRIATE FORECASTS WILL ACHIEVE THIS GOAL,
USING A MIXTURE OF NUMERICAL WEATHER PREDICTION PRODUCTS, OBSERVED DATA AND GOOD
FORECASTING KNOWLEDGE. IT IS THE EFFECTS OF THE WEATHER, IN OTHER WORDS ITS OUTCOMES,
WHICH MUST BE CONSIDERED.

THE RESEARCH CARRIED OUT AS PART OF THE WORLD CLIMATE RESEARCH PROGRAMME SINCE
THE EARLY 1970S IS VERY IMPORTANT IN ALLOWING US TO UNDERSTAND MANY OF THE PROCESSES
AND ASSOCIATED WEATHER OF THE TROPICAL ZONE (GATES AND NEWSON, 2006). KNOWLEDGE
CONTINUES TO GROW THROUGH MORE RECENT RESEARCH PROGRAMMES, SUCH AS TOGA, WHICH
INVESTIGATES THE IMPORTANT LINKS BETWEEN THE TROPICAL OCEAN AND THE GLOBAL ATMOSPHERE
(FLEMING, 1986). IT IS CLEAR THAT THE TROPICS HAVE AN IMPORTANT EFFECT ON WEATHER SYSTEMS
THROUGHOUT THE GLOBE, PROVIDING MUCH OF THEIR ENERGY.

THE MOST COMMONLY USED DEFINITION OF THE TROPICS IS THE ZONE WITHIN WHICH THE SUN
IS DIRECTLY OVERHEAD AT SOME TIME DURING THE YEAR, I.E. THE ZONE BETWEEN THE TROPICS OF
CANCER AND CAPRICORN (23.45°N AND 23.45°S, RESPECTIVELY). HOWEVER, A MORE
METEOROLOGICAL DEFINITION, RATHER THAN THE ELEVATION OF THE SUN AT MIDDAY, IS PROBABLY
MORE USEFUL TO BOTH THE WEATHER FORECASTER AND THE CLIMATOLOGIST.

A SIMPLE METHOD IS TO DIVIDE THE GLOBE INTO TROPICAL AND EXTRA-TROPICAL ZONES. THIS
IS A METHOD OFTEN EMPLOYED FOR THE VERIFICATION OF NUMERICAL FORECASTS (WMO, 1982;
FULLER, 2004). ONE SUCH METHOD DIVIDES THE GLOBE INTO TWO EQUAL HALVES – TROPICS AND
EXTRA-TROPICS – WITH SOMEWHAT ARBITRARY DIVIDING LINES AT 30°N AND 30°S. CONVENIENTLY,
THIS LATITUDE RANGE INCLUDES ALMOST ALL OF THE CLIMATIC ZONES THAT CAN BE REGARDED AS
TROPICAL: HUMID EQUATORIAL, SAVANNAH, SEMI-DESERT SCRUB AND HOT DESERT (FIGURE 1).

HOWEVER, THE ZONES OF PREDOMINANTLY WESTERLY WINDS MAKE INCURSIONS

EQUATORWARD OF THESE LINES OF LATITUDE, PARTICULARLY IN WINTER. IN ORDER TO KEEP WITHIN
A ZONE OF PREDOMINANTLY EASTERLY WINDS AT MOST LEVELS, A NARROWER ZONE MUST BE USED.
WHERE AN AUTOMATED SYSTEM, SUCH AS THE VERIFICATION OF NUMERICAL FORECASTS, IS NOT
REQUIRED, THERE ARE BETTER CLIMATOLOGICAL OR SYNOPTIC-METEOROLOGICAL WAYS TO DEFINE
THE TROPICS.

A MORE USEFUL DEFINITION FOR THE CLIMATOLOGIST IS BASED ON THE SMALL ANNUAL
VARIATION OF CLIMATE TYPICAL IN THE TROPICS. RIEHL (1979, CH. 2) PROPOSED THE DEFINITION AS
THE AREA WITHIN WHICH THE DIURNAL TEMPERATURE RANGE EXCEEDS THE RANGE OF ANNUAL MEAN
TEMPERATURE. THIS HAS GREAT VALUE, SINCE DATA CAN EASILY BE SORTED USING THIS DEFINITION.
HOWEVER, THE WEATHER FORECASTER USUALLY NEEDS SOMETHING MORE CLOSELY RELATED TO THE
DAILY WEATHER, WITHOUT REFERENCE TO SEASONAL VARIATIONS.

USING CURRENT WEATHER, IT IS POSSIBLE TO DEFINE THE TROPICAL ZONE ON A DAILY BASIS.
THE TEMPERATURE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TROPICS AND MIDDLE LATITUDES CAUSES A JET STREAM
TO DEVELOP AT THE POLEWARD LIMIT OF THE TROPICS. THIS SUB-TROPICAL JET STREAM (STJ) HAS A
CORE CLOSE TO 30°N AND 30°S AND HAS LITTLE HIGHAMPLITUDE WAVE DEVELOPMENT ALONG IT
(FIGURE 2). THE AREA BETWEEN THESE JET STREAMS HAS A TROPOSPHERIC DEPTH CHARACTERISTIC
OF THE TROPICAL ZONE. THIS DEPTH ALLOWS US TO DEFINE THE PERIPHERY OF THE TROPICS, EVEN
WHEN THE STJ WEAKENS OR IS ABSENT, AS OFTEN OCCURS IN SUMMER, AS IS USUALLY THE CASE IN
THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE IN SUMMER. FURTHERMORE, THE STJS COINCIDE WITH THE TRANSITION
FROM WESTERLY LOWER TROPOSPHERIC WINDS ON THEIR POLEWARD SIDE TO THE EASTERLY TRADE
WINDS ON THEIR EQUATORWARD SIDE.

ALTHOUGH USE OF THE STJ AS THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN LIMITS OF THE TROPICS MEANS
THAT THE TROPICAL ZONE EXTENDS NORTH OF 40°N OVER ASIA DURING THE NORTHERN SUMMER, IT
IS APPROPRIATE, SINCE THE AIR TO THE SOUTH OF IT RETAINS TROPICAL CHARACTERISTICS. TO
PROVIDE CONSISTENCY THROUGHOUT THIS SERIES OF PAPERS, SOME AREAS POLEWARD OF THE MEAN
LATITUDE OF THE STJ WILL BE DISCUSSED, SINCE THESE AREAS SPEND PART OF THE YEAR WITHIN THE
METEOROLOGICAL TROPICS. THIS ALSO ALLOWS INCLUSION OF AREAS FREQUENTLY AFFECTED BY
UPPER-TROPOSPHERIC TROUGHS IN THE STJ.

FIGURE 1. CLIMATIC ZONES OF THE TROPICS: AF, AM – TROPICAL RAINFOREST; AW – SAVANNAH; BSH –
TROPICAL STEPPE; BWH – TROPICAL AND SUB-TROPICAL DESERT; CS – DRY-SUMMER SUB-TROPICAL; H –
HIGHLANDS; CF – WARM TEMPERATE WITH NO DRY SEASON; CS – WARM TEMPERATE WITH DRY SUMMER;
CW – WARM TEMPERATE WITH DRY WINTER; STIPPLED– MODIFICATION DUE TO ALTITUDE. THE EFFECT OF
HIGH GROUND HAS A PROFOUND INFLUENCE ON CLIMATE IN THE TROPICS, PARTICULARLY ABOVE ABOUT 2
KM. (USING THE SYSTEM DEVISED BY WLADIMIR KOPPEN.)

WITHIN THE TROPICS, WINDS ARE OFTEN RELATIVELY LIGHT, IN PARTICULAR AT UPPER LEVELS.
OVER THE ATLANTIC AND MUCH OF THE PACIFIC, THESE ARE WESTERLIES THROUGHOUT THE YEAR.
OVER THE WESTERN PACIFIC, INDIAN OCEAN AND AFRICA, THERE ARE HIGH-LEVEL EASTERLIES CLOSE
TO THE EQUATOR (FIGURES 2 AND 3). AT LOW LEVELS, TRADE-WIND FLOWS PREDOMINATE,
ORIGINATING IN THE SUB-TROPICAL HIGH-PRESSURE SYSTEMS (THE AREAS OF THE ‘DOLDRUMS’)
CENTRED NEAR 30°N AND 25°S. NORTH-EASTERLIES IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE CONVERGE NEAR
THE EQUATOR WITH SOUTH-EASTERLIES IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE PROVIDING THE ADDITIONAL
FORCING NECESSARY FOR DEEP CONVECTION WITHIN THE TROPICS, FORMING A BELT OF CONVECTIVE
CLOUD: THE INTER-TROPICAL CONVERGENCE ZONE (ITCZ). HOWEVER, SIGNIFICANT REVERSALS IN THE
LOW-LEVEL WIND FLOW OCCUR OVER AND AROUND THE TROPICAL CONTINENTS DURING THE CHANGE
FROM WINTER TO SUMMER.
 SUMMER MONSOON CIRCULATIONS HAVE WESTERLIES AT LOW LEVELS, BUT MIDDLE- AND
UPPER-TROPOSPHERIC EASTERLIES STRENGTHEN AS THE TROPOSPHERE WARMS AND DEEPENS TO
FORM AN UPPER HIGH OVER THE CONTINENTS, ON THE EQUATORWARD RIM OF WHICH THERE IS A
STEEP TEMPERATURE AND HEIGHT GRADIENT. THE GREATEST STRENGTHENING OCCURS AS THE
EQUATORIAL HIGH MIGRATES AWAY FROM THE EQUATOR AND DEEPENS. CLOSE TO THE EQUATOR,
THESE WINDS MAY REACH JET STREAM STRENGTH IN A SHALLOW LAYER NEAR 15 KM ALTITUDE. THIS
JET STREAM IS FOUND ONLY ABOUT 1000 M BELOW THE TROPICAL TROPOPAUSE. DURING THE
NORTHERN-HEMISPHERE SUMMER, THESE WINDS STRETCH ALL THE WAY FROM SOUTH-EAST ASIA TO
AFRICA’S GOLD COAST, ALTHOUGH THE MAIN ACTIVITY AND HIGHEST SPEEDS ARE GENERALLY ACROSS
THE SOUTHERN TIP OF INDIA, WHERE SPEEDS OCCASIONALLY REACH 60 MS–1* AND THERE IS A LOCAL
MINIMUM OVER EASTERN AFRICA (HASTENRATH, 1991). A SIMILAR, BUT WEAKER, JET STREAM FORMS
OVER NEW GUINEA AND INDONESIA IN RESPONSE TO THE WARMING OF AUSTRALIA DURING THE
SOUTHERN SUMMER.

THE EASTERLY WINDS AT HIGH LEVELS DIVERGE NORTH AND SOUTH AWAY FROM THE UPPER
HIGH THAT FORMS CLOSE TO THE EQUATOR. NORTH AND SOUTH OF 15° LATITUDE, THEY BECOME
WESTERLIES (FIGURE 2). THE UPPER WESTERLIES MAY REACH JET STREAM STRENGTH TO FORM THE
SUBTROPICAL JET STREAM (STJ) ALONG THE POLEWARD EDGE OF THE TROPICAL AIR MASS, CLOSE TO
30°N AND 30°S. THE STJ IS PRESENT THROUGHOUT THE YEAR IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE, BUT
HAS LARGE SPEED CHANGES BETWEEN WINTER AND SUMMER IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE. IN THE
NORTHERN WINTER, ITS SPEED MAY REACH 110 MS–1 OR MORE OVER EAST ASIA AND THE WESTERN
PACIFIC. HOWEVER, ITS SPEED IS RARELY MORE THAN 50 MS–1 IN HIGH SUMMER WITH A MEAN
CLOSER TO 25 MS–1.

AT MEDIUM LEVELS, WINDS OF MODERATE STRENGTH OFTEN FORM WAVE TRAINS, KNOWN AS
EASTERLY WAVES, WHICH FORM IN RESPONSE TO TEMPERATURE DIFFERENCES AND CONVECTIVE
DEVELOPMENT. THESE HAVE A STRONG ASSOCIATION WITH SEVERE WEATHER, NOTABLY SUMMER
MESOSCALE WEATHER SYSTEMS OVER INDIA, AND THE SQUALL LINES OF AFRICA AND PARTS OF THE
PACIFIC OCEAN (ATKINSON, 1971; LEROUX, 2001). OVER THE ATLANTIC, EASTERLY WAVES ARE
INTIMATELY ASSOCIATED WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF TROPICAL REVOLVING STORMS (EMANUEL 2005).
THE LOW VALUE OF THE CORIOLIS FORCE CLOSE TO THE EQUATOR PRESENTS A DIFFICULTY IN THE
ASSESSMENT OF WIND SPEED AND DIRECTION, SO STREAMLINE ANALYSIS, RATHER THAN
CONVENTIONAL PRESSURE ANALYSIS, IS GENERALLY USED IN THE TROPICS, AS DESCRIBED IN BOX 1.
 FIGURE 2. MEAN ANNUAL WIND FLOW (STREAMLINES) AT 200 HPA (C. 12 KM) IN THE TROPICS WITH
VECTOR-MEAN ISOTACHS (MS–1) SHOWN BY DASHES. THE MEAN CORE OF THE SUB-TROPICAL JET STREAMS
IS SHOWN BY ARROWS. THE EFFECT OF USING GRIDDED VECTOR-MEAN SPEED, AS IN THIS CASE, IS TO
REDUCE THE APPARENT SPEED OF THE WINDS, WHICH ARE INSTANTANEOUSLY STRONGER AT ALL TIMES
AND IN ALL SEASONS. (THE USE OF THE 200-HPA ALSO OMITS THE STRONGEST WINDS OBSERVED NEAR
THE EQUATOR, WHICH DEVELOP BETWEEN THE 150-HPA AND 100-HPA LEVELS; THESE ARE INDICATED BY
ARROWS.) THE EASTERLY AND WESTERLY BRANCHES OF THE WALKER CIRCULATION CAN BE SEEN CLOSE TO
THE EQUATOR. (ADAPTED FROM GODBOLE AND SHUKLA, 1981.)

THE TROPICAL REGION EXPERIENCES ONLY GRADUAL CHANGES IN WEATHER PATTERNS AND
VARIATIONS ARE GENERALLY SMALL, EVEN BETWEEN SEASONS. THE MAIN CHANGES ARE BETWEEN DRY
AND WET SEASONS, MARKED (I) BY THE NORTHWARD AND SOUTHWARD MOVEMENT OF THE INTER-
TROPICAL CONVERGENCE ZONE (ITCZ) IN THE CENTRAL (EQUATORIAL) PORTION AND (II) BY THE
WINTER INCURSION OF COOLER AIR AT ALTITUDE NEAR THE POLEWARD EXTREMES. EVEN WITH THIS
MOVEMENT, THERE IS ALMOST NO SEASONAL WEATHER FLUCTUATION WITHIN ABOUT 5–10° LATITUDE
OF THE MEAN POSITION OF THE ITCZ. HOWEVER, SINCE MOST OF THE WORLD’S HOT DESERTS HAVE
THEIR EQUATORIAL FLANK WITHIN 20° OF THE EQUATOR, MARKED BY TRANSITION TO SAVANNAH
VEGETATION (E.G. THE SAHEL OF WEST AFRICA), SEASONAL VARIATIONS CAN BE LARGE CLOSE TO
THESE LATITUDES.

AS CAN BE SEEN IN FIGURE 1, THE PREDOMINANT CLIMATES OF THE TROPICS ARE DRY ONES:
THE HOT DESERTS, SEMI-DESERT SCRUB AND EXPANSIVE SAVANNAHS. THESE LIE TOWARDS THE
PERIPHERY OF THE TROPICAL ZONE, IN REGIONS WHERE ANTICYCLONIC SUBSIDENCE PREDOMINATES
AND RAINFALL IS EITHER SEASONAL OR EPHEMERAL. THE HOT DESERTS ARE NOTED FOR A HIGH
DIURNAL RANGE OF TEMPERATURE. A MAXIMUM OF MORE THAN 40°C IN PLACES BY MID AFTERNOON
MAY FALL AS MUCH AS 30 DEGC BY MORNING. THIS RANGE IS SOLELY DUE TO THE EFFECTS OF A DRY
ATMOSPHERE WITH LITTLE OR NO CLOUD AND SUCH A LOW VAPOUR PRESSURE THAT DIURNAL
TEMPERATURES CAN VARY GREATLY.

OVER CONTINENTAL AREAS, THE PERIPHERY OF THE HUMID ZONE IS DOMINATED BY MONSOON
WIND REGIMES. THESE BRING WET HUMID WEATHER IN SUMMER AND PREDOMINANTLY DRY WEATHER
IN WINTER. CHARACTERISTICALLY, THERE IS A SEASONAL REVERSAL OF WIND AT LOW LEVELS. IN THE
NORTHERN SUMMER, SOUTHEASTERLY WINDS CROSS THE EQUATOR AND RECURVE TO BECOME SOUTH-
WESTERLIES (NORTH-EASTERLIES BECOME NORTH-WESTERLIES IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE),
BRINGING MOIST OCEANIC AIR ACROSS THE EQUATOR INTO AREAS THAT ARE UNDER THE INFLUENCE
OF DRY CONTINENTAL EASTERLY WINDS DURING THE WINTER. WEST AFRICA, SOUTHERN ASIA AND
NORTHERN AUSTRALIA ALL EXPERIENCE THESE MONSOON REVERSALS. ALTHOUGH STILL SEASONAL,
THE SITUATION IS MORE COMPLEX OVER THE AMAZON BASIN AND CARIBBEAN, WHERE MOIST
WESTERLIES CANNOT BECOME ESTABLISHED, DUE TO THE ANDES-SIERRA MADRE MOUNTAIN
BARRIERS. THUS THE MOTION OF CONVECTION IS DEPENDENT ON MORE COMPLEX CHANGES IN THE
ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE CARIBBEAN SEA, WHICH WARMS AND COOLS
MORE THAN THE NEIGHBOURING ATLANTIC OCEAN.

OVER THE WARMEST OCEAN AREAS, THE TROPICS ARE CHARACTERIZED BY THE DEVELOPMENT
OF TROPICAL REVOLVING STORMS, ASSOCIATED WITH STRONG LOWER-TROPOSPHERIC WINDS AND
(PERHAPS MORE IMPORTANTLY) HEAVY RAINFALL. ALTHOUGH A RELATIVELY NARROW ZONE¶ (NO MORE
THAN ABOUT 1500KM WIDE, EXCEPT IN SOUTH-EAST ASIA), IT IS THE HUMID EQUATORIAL ZONE THAT
MANY ASSOCIATE WITH THE TROPICS. IN THIS ZONE, RAINFALL CAN BE RELIED UPON YEAR ROUND, AS
THE ITCZ IS NEVER FAR AWAY.

FIGURE 3. MEAN SEA-LEVEL PRESSURE IN THE TROPICS (A) JANUARY, (B) JULY. OVER HIGH GROUND, IN
PARTICULAR THE HIMALAYAS, MEAN SEA-LEVEL PRESSURE HAS NO MEANING, SINCE THE SURFACE WIND
FLOW IS INFLUENCED BY PRESSURE DIFFERENCES AT HIGHER LEVELS. (ADAPTED FROM GODBOLE AND
SHUKLA, 1981.)

PROBLEM

THE URBAN RISK AND DECISION MAKING CONTEXT CREATES A UNIQUE CHALLENGE TO CLIMATE
INFORMATION ANALYSIS, PRODUCTION, AND COMMUNICATION. URBAN CLIMATE OR WEATHER RELATED
RISKS ARE COMPLEX AND TYPICALLY EMERGE THROUGH POORLY UNDERSTOOD INTERACTIONS ACROSS
SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL SCALES AS WELL AS SECTORAL CONTEXTS.

PROVIDING CLIMATE INFORMATION IN SUCH A CONTEXT REQUIRES MULTIPLE TYPES OF CLIMATE

DATA FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES, SUITABLY ANALYSED AND PROCESSED FOR QUALITY AND
STATISTICALLY RELEVANT SIGNALS. WHILE MUCH WORK IS FOCUSSED ON CO-PRODUCTION AND
MULTI/TRANS-DISCIPLINARY MODES OF CLIMATE INFORMATION OR KNOWLEDGE GENERATION, THIS
WORK OFTEN RESTS ON FUNDAMENTAL DATA ACCESS AND ANALYSIS WHICH IN ITSELF IS A GROWING
CHALLENGE.
 THE ABILITY TO RAPIDLY MINE LARGE CLIMATE DATASETS AS MULTI-DISCIPLINARY PROCESSES
EVOLVE IN A PARTICULAR CONTEXT IS BECOMING INCREASING CRITICAL. IT IS A SIGNIFICANT
OBSTACLE TO MULTIDISCIPLINARY PROCESSES WHEN NEW CLIMATE INFORMATION CANNOT BE
GENERATED TIMEOUSLY. THE ABSENCE OF THIS CAPACITY RESULTS IN A STRONG DEPENDENCE ON
PRE-GENERATED CLIMATE INFORMATION GENERATED WITHIN HIGHLY RESOURCED, TYPICALLY
NORTHERN INSTITUTIONS, STRONGLY DECOUPLED FROM REAL WORLD APPLICATIONS.

AN EXAMPLE OF THIS IS THE PROLIFERATION OF CLIMATE INFORMATION PORTALS OR WEBSITES

PROVIDING A DIVERSITY OF CONTRADICTORY CLIMATE DATA WITH COMMONLY LITTLE GUIDANCE
REGARDING SUITABILITY TO DIFFERENT APPLICATIONS OR GEOGRAPHICAL AREAS.

SOLUTION

USABLE BUT POWERFUL CLIMATE ANALYSIS SOFTWARE IS ONE COMPONENT IN CHANGING THIS
PROBLEM. SUCH SOFTWARE CAN ENABLE LOCAL CLIMATE RESEARCHERS TO EASILY GENERATE MORE
APPROPRIATE CLIMATE INFORMATION WITHIN THEIR OWN CONTEXTS RATHER THAN RELYING ON
EXTERNALLY PRE-GENERATED DATA. HOWEVER, THE USE OF SUCH SOFTWARE DOES REQUIRE GREATER
TECHNICAL SKILL AND SO MAY NEED TO BE SUPPORTED THROUGH CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT
ACTIVITIES. HOWEVER SUCH CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT IS AN ADDED OPPORTUNITY TO INCREASE LOCAL
CAPACITY TO NOT ONLY ANALYSE DATA BUT ALSO INTERPRET AND COMMUNICATE THE RESULTS OF THE
ANALYSES.

CLIMATIC DATA & ANALYSIS – PANGASINAN

INTRODUCTION

PANGASINAN HAS THE TROPICAL RAINFOREST CLIMATE PREVAILING. THE AVERAGE ANNUAL

TEMPERATURE FOR PANGASINAN IS 29° DEGREES AND THERE IS ABOUT 1301 MM OF RAIN IN A YEAR.
IT IS DRY FOR 69 DAYS A YEAR WITH AN AVERAGE HUMIDITY OF 81% AND AN UV-INDEX OF 7.
FIGURE 1. THE AVERAGE HIGH AND LOW TEMPERATURE FOR EACH
MONTH OF THE YEAR IN PANGASINAN, STARTING FROM JANUARY TO
PRESENT. IT ALSO SHOWS THE MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM RECORDED
TEMPERATURES.

FIGURE 2. THE AVERAGE NUMBER OF DAYS IN ANY MONTH THAT YOU

CAN EXPECT TO SEE RAIN FALLING.
 FIGURE 3. AVERAGE DAILY WIND SPEED YOU CAN EXPECT FOR ANY
MONTH. IT ALSO SHOWS THE MAXIMUM RECORDED SUSTAINED
WIND SPEED FOR EACH MONTH.

CLIMATIC DATA & ANALYSIS TOOLS AND METHODS

1) CLIMATE DATA PROCESSING

THE FIRST RULE OF DATA PROCESSING IS TO LOOK AT YOUR DATA. WHAT DATA FORMAT IS
BEING USED? WHAT VARIABLES ARE AVAILABLE AND WHAT ARE THE UNITS? WHAT TYPE OF
GRID: RECTILINEAR, CURVLINEAR OR UNSTRUCTURED? WHAT IS THE ORIENTATION OF THE GRID:
NORTH-TO-SOUTH OR SOUTH-TO-NORTH? WHAT LONGITUDE ORDER? WHAT TEMPORAL AND VERTICAL
COORDINATE(S) ARE USED? ARE THERE MISSING VALUES PRESENT? (IF SO, HOW ARE THEY
IDENTIFIED?) DOES THE FILE CONTENTS ADHERE TO ANY CONVENTION? DO NOT MAKE THE
ASSSUMPTION THAT THE DATA ARE WITHOUT PROBLEMS.  UNFORTUNATELY, PROCESSING CLIMATE
DATA CAN BE RATHER INTIMIDATING DUE THE LARGE SIZES OF THE DATA SETS. SOME CLIMATE MODEL
COMPONENTS (EG, OCEAN) CAN PRODUCE INDIVIDUAL MONTHLY MEAN FILES THAT EXCEED 17GB
WHILE SOME OBSERVATIONALLY BASED REANALYSIS DATASETS EXCEED SEVERAL TERA BYTES . SINCE
CLIMATE, BY DEFINITION, IS THE STATISTICS OF ONE OR MORE VARIABLES OVER A PERIOD OF TIME, IT
OFTEN MEANS THAT THERE ARE MANY FILES TO BE PROCESSED. FURTHER, SOME CLIMATE PROJECTION
SCENARIOS MAY SPAN 50-100 YEARS INTO THE FUTURE AND THERE MAY BE MULTIPLE MODEL RUNS
(ENSEMBLES) TO ASSESS MODEL SENSITIVITY. ASSORTED DATA FORMATS AND A VARIETY
OF PROCESSING TOOLS MAY BE USED BY DIFFERENT GROUPS TO ARCHIVE AND PROCESS THE DATA.

2) STATISTICAL & DIAGNOSTIC METHODS

BY DEFINITION, CLIMATE IS THE STATISTICS OF WEATHER OVER AN ARBITRARILY DEFINED TIME

SPAN. THE METHODS USED TO DERIVE THE STATISTICAL ESTIMATES CAN BE SIMPLE OR VERY
COMPLEX. THE MOST COMMON STATISTIC IS THE AVERAGE OF SOME VARIABLE (EG. TEMPERATURE).
HOWEVER, SOLEY FOCUSING ON THE AVERAGE CAN BE MISLEADING. FOR EXAMPLE, THE AVERAGE
TEMPERATURE MAY BE CONSISTENT WITH PREVIOUS TIME SPANS BUT THE VARIANCE MAY HAVE
CHANGED IN SOME 'SIGNIFICANT' WAY. THE GRADUAL CHANGE OF SOME VARIABLE OVER TIME IS
DEFINED AS A TREND. EXTREME VALUE ANALYSIS (EVA) IS USED TO ASSESS THE LIKELIHOOD OF
EVENTS AT THE TAILS OF A VARIABLE'S DISTRIBUTION. CLASSICAL STATISTICAL METHODS USE THE
ASSUMPTION OF STATIONARITY WHICH IMPLIES THAT A VARIABLE'S DISTRIBUTION (E.G., MEAN,
VARIANCE, NO TREND, ETC.) DOES NOT VARY WITH TIME. OBVIOUSLY, THE STATIONARITY
ASSUMPTION IS VIOLATED UNDER A CLIMATE CHANGING (EG. WARMING) SCENARIO. HOWEVER, THERE
ARE PREPROCESSING APPROACHES SUCH AS DETRENDING WHICH ALLOWS THE RESULTING DATA TO BE
TREATED AS 'APPROXIMATELY' STATIONARY. IN ADDITION TO CONVENTIONAL STATISTICS, THERE ARE
'DIAGNOSTICS' WHICH ARE USED TO ASSESS THE NATURE OF CLIMATE VARIATIONS ON DIFFERING
TIME SCALES. 

3) BINARY

BINARY FILES ENCOUNTERED IN CLIMATE ARE GENERALLY CREATED FROM COMPILED

LANGUAGES SUCH AS FORTRAN OR C/C++. THESE ARE EASY TO CREATE AND ARE SUPPORTED BY THE
COMPILED LANGUAGES. SOME SOFTWARE TOOLS USED IN CLIMATE RESEARCH (IDL, MATLAB) CAN
PRODUCE BINARY FILES BUT THEY ARE PROPRIETARY AND ARE BEST READ WITH THE TOOLS THAT
PRODUCE THEM.  BINARY FILES CREATED BY FORTRAN/C/C++ REQUIRE THAT THE USER KNOW, A
PRIORI, THE FOLLOWING:

(A) THE STRUCTURE OR LAY-OUT OF THE DATA;

(B) THE DATA TYPES [EG., INTEGER, FLOAT, DOUBLE] OF ALL THE VARIABLES;
(C) THE "ENDIAN" TYPE OF THE FILE BEING READ (BIG ENDIAN OR LITTLE ENDIAN);
(D) WHETHER THE FILE IS A 'FLAT' BINARY FILE OR IF IT WAS WRITTEN WITH, SAY, FORTRAN A
SEQUENTIAL WRITE STATEMENT, IN WHICH CASE, THERE ARE HIDDEN RECORD SEPARATORS.

WITHOUT THIS EXTERNAL COLLECTION OF INFORMATION, IT IS DIFFICULT TO UNAMBIGOUSLY

ASCERTAIN A BINARY FILE'S CONTENTS. AS A RESULT THERE ARE NO GENERIC FILE TOOLS TO DEAL
WITH BINARY FILES.  THIS IS ONE REASON WHY BINARY FILES ARE NOT IN GENERAL USE FOR
ARCHIVING CLIMATE DATA.

4) CLIMATE DATA PROCESSING SOFTWARE

A COMMON QUESTION: "WHAT IS THE BEST SOFTWARE TO USE FOR CLIMATE DATA PROCESSING?"

THERE IS NO SIMPLE ANSWER. ALL SOFTWARE TOOLS AND LANGUAGES HAVE STRENGTHS AND
WEAKNESSES. FOR LARGE SCALE DATA PROCESSING ON A VARIETY OF DATA SETS IN ASSORTED DATA
FORMATS AND DIFFERING PROJECT REQUIREMENTS, IT IS UNLIKLEY THAT A PERFECT TOOL OR
LANGUAGE EXITS. OFTEN, A COMBINATION OF SOFTWARE TOOLS AND LANGUAGES WILL BE NEEDED.
CLIMATE DATA PROCESSING INVOLVES 3 COMPONENTS: (1) FILE HANDLING (I/O); (2) PROCESSING
(DATA MANIPULATION AND COMPUTATIONS), AND (3) GRAPHICS (VISUALIZATION). THERE ARE THREE
DIFFERENT SOFTWARE CATEGORIES USED FOR CLIMATE DATA PROCESSING AND VISUALIZATION: (1)
COMPILED LANGUAGES (EG., FORTRAN, C, C++); (2) COMMAND LINE OPERATORS AND VIEWERS
(NCO, CDO, NCVIEW, PANOPLY); (3) INTERPRETED LANGUAGES (NCL, GRADS, FERRET, R, GENERIC
MAPPING TOOLS (GMT),  PERL DATA LANGUAGE (PDL) ,  PYTHON 
[CDAT/PYNIO/PYNGL/NUMPY/MATPLOTLIB], AND THE COMMERCIAL
PRODUCTS MATLAB, IDL AND,TOALESSEREXTENT, PV-WAVE).   

COMPILED LANGUAGES CAN BE MUCH FASTER THAN THE INTERPRETED LANGUAGES FOR LARGE
COMPUTATION BOUND TASKS. LANGUAGE COMPILERS ANALYZE AND OPTIMIZE CODE AND CREATE
MACHINE SPECIFIC EXECUTION INSTRUCTIONS. AS A RESULT, THEY CAN PERFORM LOOPING
(ITERATIONS) FASTER.  FOR EXAMPLE, WEATHER FORECAST AND CLIMATE MODELS ARE OFTEN
WRITTEN IN FORTRAN (USUALLY F90). HOWEVER, COMPILED LANGUAGES LACK BUILTIN SUPPORT FOR
ACCESSING THE DIFFERENT DATA FORMATS USED IN CLIMATE STUDIES AND THEY HAVE NO BUILTIN
GRAPHICS.  FURTHER, PROGRAMMING IN COMPILED LANGUAGES CAN BE TEDIOUS.

COMMAND LINE OPERATORS (CLOS) ARE TOOLS THAT CAN BE EXECUTED DIRECTLY AT THE
SYSTEM PROMPT LINE. THERE ARE MANY NCO AND CDO OPERATORS AND THERE IS SOME FUNCTIONAL
OVERLAP. EACH OPERATOR IS DESIGNED TO PERFORM A SPECIFIC TASK EFFICIENTLY. FOR EXAMPLE,
THE NCO OPERATOR "NCRA" CAN INPUT ONE OR MORE NETCDF FILES, COMPUTE TIME AVERAGES
(MEANS) OF ALL OR SELECTED VARIABLES ON THE FILE(S) AND SAVE THE RESULTS TO A NETCDF FILE.
IT IS NOT UNCOMMON TO USE AN NCO/CDO OPERATOR TO ACCOMPLISH A SPECIFIC TASK AND, THEN,
FEED THE OUTPUT FILE TO A DIFFERENT CDO/NCO OPERATOR. NCVIEW IS A COMMONLY USED VISUAL
BROWSER FOR NETCDF FORMAT FILES.
 INTERPRETED LANGUAGES ARE GENERAL PURPOSE SOFTWARE TOOLS. THEY INCLUDE SUPPORT
TO READ AND WRITE ASSORTED DATA FORMATS; HAVE MANY BUILTIN COMPUTATIONAL FUNCTIONS;
AND, CREATE VISUALIZATIONS. THESE TOOLS HAVE ALL THE CAPABILITIES OF THE CLOS AND NCVIEW
AND CAN DO MUCH MORE. HOWEVER, THEY DO REQUIRE USERS TO ENTER COMMANDS INTERACTIVELY
OR VIA A SCRIPT.
WITHIN NCAR'S CLIMATE ANALYSIS SECTION, TERA-BYTES OF MODEL OUTPUT,
OBSERVATIONALLY BASED DATA SETS LIKE THE REANALYSIS PRODUCTS (ERA-INTERIM, MERRA, NCEP-
NCAR, JRA, ...) AND SATELLITE DATA ARE ANALYZED, EVALUATED AND USED AS THE BASIS FOR
PUBLICATIONS. THE DATA ARE IN A VARIETY OF FORMATS, INCLUDING: NETCDF-3/4, GRIB-1/2, HDF4,
HDF4-EOS, HDF5, HDF5-EOS. THE PRIMARY POST-PROCESSING TOOLS USED ARE NCL AND THE NCO. IN
SOME CASES, DATA CREATED BY NCL/NCO ARE INPUT TO R FOR CERTAIN STATISTICAL METHODS NOT
AVAILABLE WITHIN NCL. DEPENDING UPON THE APPLICATION, THE CDO, IDL AND MATLAB ARE ALSO
USED.

5) COMMON CLIMATE DATA FORMATS

DATA FORMATS COMMONLY ENCOUNTERED IN CLIMATE RESEARCH FALL INTO 3 GENERIC

CATEGORIES: GRIB, NETCDF AND HDF. ALL OF THESE FORMATS ARE PORTABLE (MACHINE
INDEPENDENT) AND SELF-DESCRIBING.  SELF-DESCRIBING FILES CAN BE EXAMINED AND READ BY THE
APPROPRIATE SOFTWARE WITHOUT THE USER KNOWING THE FILE'S STRUCTURAL DETAILS.  FURTHER,
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE DATA, CALLED "METADATA", MAY BE INCLUDED IN THE FILE.
TYPICAL METADATA MAY INCLUDE TEXTUAL INFORMATION ABOUT EACH VARIABLE'S CONTENTS AND
UNITS (EG.,"SPECIFIC HUMIDITY" AND "G/KG") OR NUMERICAL INFORMATION DESCRIBING THE
COORDINATES (EG., TIME, LEVEL, LATITUDE, LONGITUDE) THAT APPLY TO THE VARIABLES ON THE
FILE. 

EACH OF THESE FILE FORMATS HAS EVOLVED OVER TIME TO ADDRESS THE CHANGING NEEDS OF
THE COMMUNITIES THEY SUPPORT. HENCE, THERE ARE MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF EACH FORMAT.
UNFORTUNATELY FOR USERS, THE NEWER FORMATS ARE NOT NECESSARILY BACKWARD COMPATIBLE
DESPITE THE SIMILAR NAMING CONVENTIONS. THIS CAN BE BOTH FRUSTRATING AND CONFUSING FOR
USERS. SPECIFICALLY, THE DATA FORMATS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

GRIB1:    GRIDDED BINARY (EDITION 1), WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION

GRIB2:    GRIDDED BINARY (EDITION 2), WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION
NETCDF3:  NETWORK COMMON DATA FORM, (VERSION 3.X), UNIDATA (UCAR/NCAR)
NETCDF4:  NETWORK COMMON DATA FORMAT, (VERSION 4.X), UNIDATA (UCAR/NCAR
HDF4:     HIERARCHICAL DATA FORMAT, (VERSION 4.X),  NCSA/NASA
HDF4-EOS2: HDF4-EARTH OBSEVING SYSTEM, (VERSION 2; GEOREFERENCED DATA)
HDF5:     HIERARCHICAL DATA FORMAT, (VERSION 5.X),  NCSA/NASA
HDF5-EOS5: HDF5-EARTH OBSEVING SYSTEM, (VERSION 5; GEOREFERENCED DATA)
GEOTIFF: GEOREFERENCED RASTER IMAGERY

A SUBTLE DIFFERENCE IS THAT NETCDF/HDF/HDF-EOS ARE FILE FORMATS WHILE GRIB IS

A RECORD FORMAT. BECAUSE NETCDF/HDF/HDF-EOS ARE FILE FORMATS THERE ARE RULES ON A FILE'S
CONTENTS. FOR EXAMPLE, A SIMPLE NETCDF RULE IS THAT ALL VARIABLE NAMES MUST BE UNIQUE. 
HDF ALLOWS A FILE TO CONTAIN MULTIPLE VARIABLES WITH THE SAME NAME BUT THE VARIABLES
MUST BE IN DIFFERENT 'GROUPS'. THESE 'GROUPS' CAN BE COMPLICATED BUT FOR THIS GROSS
OVERVIEW THEY CAN BE CONSIDERED ANALOGOUS TO UNIX DIRECTORIES (WINDOWS FOLDERS). EACH
GRIB-1 RECORD (AKA, 'MESSAGE') CONTAINS INFORMATION FOR TWO HORIZONTAL DIMENSIONS (EG.,
LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE) FOR ONE TIME AND ONE LEVEL. GRIB-2 ALLOWS EACH RECORD TO
CONTAIN MULTIPLE GRIDS AND LEVELS FOR EACH TIME. A COLLECTION OF GRIB RECORDS IS CALLED A
GRIB FILE. HOWEVER, THERE ARE NO RULES DICTATING THE ORDER OF THE COLLECTION OF GRIB
RECORDS (EG, RECORDS CAN BE IN RANDOM CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER).

6) GRIB

GRIB IS THE FORMAT USED BY ALL THE WORLD'S OPERATIONAL WEATHER CENTERS. "THE
WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION (WMO) COMMISSION FOR BASIC SYSTEMS IN 1985
APPROVED A GENERAL PURPOSE, BIT-ORIENTED DATA EXCHANGE FORMAT: GRIB (GRIDDED BINARY). IT
IS AN EFFICIENT VEHICLE FOR TRANSMITTING LARGE VOLUMES OF GRIDDED DATA TO AUTOMATED
CENTERS OVER HIGH-SPEED TELECOMMUNICATION LINES USING MODERN PROTOCOLS. BY PACKING
INFORMATION INTO THE GRIB CODE, MESSAGES (OR RECORDS - THE TERMS ARE SYNONYMOUS IN THIS
CONTEXT) CAN BE MADE MORE COMPACT THAN CHARACTER ORIENTED BULLETINS, WHICH WILL
PRODUCE FASTER COMPUTER-TO-COMPUTER TRANSMISSIONS. GRIB CAN EQUALLY WELL SERVE AS A
DATA STORAGE FORMAT, GENERATING THE SAME EFFICIENCIES RELATIVE TO INFORMATION STORAGE
AND RETRIEVAL DEVICES."
THERE ARE TWO GRIB VERSIONS DENOTED HERE AS GRIB-1 (ORIGINAL) AND GRIB-2 (NEW).
EACH GRIB-1 RECORD CONTAINS INFORMATION FOR TWO HORIZONTAL DIMENSIONS (EG., LATITUDE
AND LONGITUDE) FOR ONE TIME AND ONE LEVEL. GRIB-2 ALLOWS EACH RECORD TO CONTAIN
MULTIPLE HORIZONAL  GRIDS AND LEVELS FOR EACH TIME. A COLLECTION OF GRIB RECORDS IS
CALLED A GRIB FILE. HOWEVER, THERE ARE NO RULES DICTATING THE ORDER OF THE COLLECTION OF
RECORDS.
DEPENDING UPON ONE'S POINT OF VIEW, GRIB MAY OR MAY NOT BE DESCRIBED AS "SELF
DESCRIBING." ALL THE INFORMATION NECESSARY TO UNPACK THE DATA IS CONTAINED WITHIN EACH
RECORD. HOWEVER, THE VARIABLE BEING UNPACKED IS DENOTED BY AN "INDICATOR PARAMETER"
AND THE VARIABLE'S NAME AND UNITS MUST BE DETERMINED BY A TABLE LOOKUP. 
GENERALLY, OPERATIONAL WEATHER CENTERS CREATE REANALYSIS AND FORECAST PRODUCTS
IN GRIB FORMAT. 

7) TAYLOR DIAGRAMS
 TAYLOR DIAGRAMS PROVIDE "A CONCISE
STATISTICAL SUMMARY OF HOW WELL PATTERNS
MATCH EACH OTHER IN TERMS OF THEIR
CORRELATION, THEIR ROOT-MEAN-SQUARE
DIFFERENCE AND THE RATIO OF THEIR
VARIANCES."  ADDITIONAL INFORMATION SUCH AS
PERCENT BIAS CAN BE ADDED TO THE
CONVENTIONAL TAYLOR DIAGRAM (SEE BELOW). 
THE TAYLOR DIAGRAM PROVIDES A GRAPHICAL
FRAMEWORK THAT ALLOWS A SUITE OF VARIABLES
FROM A VARIETY OF (SAY) ONE OR MORE MODELS
OR REANALYSES TO BE COMPARED TO REFERENCE
DATA. THE REFERENCE DATA CAN BE
OBSERVATIONALLY BASED (EG, REANALYSIS) OR
TO ANOTHER MODEL OR A CONTROL RUN. ALL
VARIABLES MUST BE ON THE SAME GRID
SO REGRIDDING MAY BE NECESSARY. 

8) TREND ANALYSIS

THE DETECTION, ESTIMATION AND PREDICTION OF TRENDS AND ASSOCIATED STATISTICAL AND
PHYSICAL SIGNIFICANCE ARE IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF CLIMATE RESEARCH. GIVEN A TIME SERIES OF
(SAY) TEMPERATURES, THE TREND IS THE RATE AT WHICH TEMPERATURE CHANGES OVER A TIME
PERIOD. THE TREND MAY BE LINEAR OR NON-LINEAR.

THERE ARE NUMEROUS CAVEATS THAT SHOULD BE KEPT IN MIND WHEN ANALYZING TREND.
SOME OF THESE INCLUDE: (1) LONG TERM, OBSERVATIONALLY BASED ESTIMATES ARE SUBJECT TO
DIFFERING SAMPLING NETWORKS. COARSER SAMPLING IS LIKELY TO RESULT IN LARGER
UNCERTAINTIES. VARIABLES WHICH HAVE A LARGE SPATIAL AUTOCORRELATION (EG, TEMPERATURE,
SEA LEVEL PRESSURE) MAY HAVE SMALLER SAMPLING ERRORS THAN (SAY) PRECIPITATION WHICH
GENERALLY HAS LOWER SPATIAL CORRELATION; (2) THE CLIMATE SYSTEM WITHIN WHICH THE
OBSERVATIONS ARE MADE IS NOT STATIONARY; (3) STATION, SHIP AND SATELLITE OBSERVATIONS
ARE SUBJECT TO ASSORTED ERRORS. THESE COULD BE RANDOM, SYSTEMATIC AND EXTERNAL SUCH AS
CHANGING INSTRUMENTS, OBSERVATION TIMES OR OBSERVATIONAL ENVIRONMENTS. MUCH WORK
HAS BEEN DONE ON CREATING TIME SERIES THAT TAKES INTO ACCOUNT THESE FACTORS; (4) WHILE
REANALYSIS PROJECTS PROVIDE UNCHANGING DATA ASSIMILATION AND MODEL FRAMEWORKS, THE
OBSERVATIONAL MIX CHANGES OVER TIME. THAT MAY INTRODUCE DISCONTINUITIES IN THE TIME
SERIES THAT MAY CAUSE A TREND TO BE ESTIMATED SIGNIFICANT WHEN IN FACT IT IS AN ARTIFACT
OF THE DISCONTINUITIES; (5) EVEN A LONG SERIES OF RANDOM NUMBERS MAY HAVE SEGMENTS WITH
SHORT TERM TRENDS. FOR EXAMPLE, THE WELL KNOWN SURFACE TEMPERATURE RECORD FROM THE
CLIMATE RESEARCH UNIT WHICH SPANS 1850-PRESENT SHOWS AN UNDENIABLE LONG-TERM WARMING
TREND. HOWEVER, THERE ARE SHORT TERM NEGATIVE TRENDS OF 10-15 YEARS EMBEDDED WITHIN
THIS SERIES. ALSO, THE RATE OF WARMING CHANGES DEPENDING ON THE STARTING DATE USED IN
THAT TIME SERIES.

9) WEB BASED VISUALIZATION AND PROCESSING FOR CLIMATE AND WEATHER

THERE ARE NUMBER OF WEB-BASED SITES THAT PROVIDE THE CABABILITY TO VISUALIZE,
PERFORM LIMITED PROCEESSING TASKS AND, SOMTIMES DOWNLOAD DATA. SOME ARE DESIGNED FOR
A SPECIFIC DATA PRODUCT WHILE OTHERS ARE CABABLE OF CREATING GRAPHICS AND PERFORMING
COMPUTATIONS ON MULTIBLE DATA SETS. COMMON TASKS INCLUDE DIFFERENCE MAPS,
CORRELATIONS, COMPOSITES, AND CLIMATE MONITORING AND DERIVING CLIMATE INDICES. OFTEN
GENERATED GRAPHICAL IMAGES CAN BE DOWNLOADED USING A VARIETY OF FILE IMAGE FORMATS.
DOWNSIDES OF THESE TOOLS INCLUDE LITTLE, IF ANY, ABILITY TO ALTER THE PRESET GRAPHICAL
IMAGES OR EXPAND THE AVAILABLE COMPUTATIONAL CAPABILITIES OR ADD ADDITIONAL DATA SETS.

10) TEXT (ASCII) FILES

TEXT FILES ENCOUNTERED IN

CLIMATE RESEARCH ARE TYPICALLY
STRUCTURED AS A SEQUENCE OF LINES
TERMINATED WITH A SPECIAL 'END-OF-
LINE' CHARACTER (TYPICALLY, THE "NULL"
CHARACTER). MOST CLIMATE ORIENTED
TEXT FILES ARE IN ASCII FORMAT. AN
ADVANTAGE OF TEXT FILES IS THAT THEY
ARE HUMAN READABLE. UNFORTUNATELY,
TEXT FILES ARE VERY INEFFICIENT FOR
ARCHIVAL OR TRANSMISSION OF DATA.
11) REGRIDDING OVERVIEW

REGRIDDING IS THE PROCESS OF

INTERPOLATING FROM ONE GRID RESOLUTION
TO A DIFFERENT GRID RESOLUTION. THIS
COULD INVOLVE TEMPORAL, VERTICAL OR
SPATIAL ('HORIZONTAL') INTERPOLATIONS. 
HOWEVER, MOST COMMONLY, REGRIDDING
REFERS TO SPATIAL INTERPOLATION. THERE
ARE NUMEROUS GRID INTERPOLATION
METHODS AND USERS SHOULD CHOOSE THE
METHOD APPROPRIATE FOR THE INTENDED
TASK. USING AN INAPPROPRIATE
INTERPOLATION SCHEME MAY LEAD TO
MISLEADING RESULTS. FURTHER, MOST
CLIMATE GRIDS ARE GEOREFERENCED ON A
SPHERE WHERE POLE SINGULARITIES AND THE
CONVERGENCE OF THE LONGITUDE MERIDIONS
CAN BE ISSUES THAT NEED TO BE ADDRESSED.

GRIDS USED IN CLIMATE RESEARCH

FALL INTO SEVERAL CATEGORIES: REGULAR, RECTILINEAR, CURVILINEAR AND UNSTRUCTURED. FOR
OUR PURPOSES, GRIDS DESCRIBED BY ONE-DIMENSIONAL LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE COORDINATES
([*]) WILL BE CALLED RECTILINEAR; GRIDS WHERE THE COORDINATES ARE TWO-DIMENSIONAL ([*]
[*]) WILL BE CALLED CURVILINEAR; AND, GRIDS IN WHICH THE GRID COORDINATES REQUIRE A LIST
OF NODES (CONNECTIVITY INFORMATION) WILL BE CALLED UNSTRUCTURED. WHY THE VARIETY OF
GRIDS? REASONS INCLUDE ADVANCES IN COMPUTER CAPABILITIES, COMPUTATIONAL EFFICIENCY,
ADDRESSING POLE SINGULARITIES AND PHYSICAL CONSTRAINTS.

QUANTITATIVE EVALUATION OF DATA CONTAINED ON DIFFERENT GRIDS REQUIRES REGRIDDING

TO A COMMON GRID. THERE ARE MANY REGRIDDING METHODS. CLASSIC INTERPOLATION METHODS
INCLUDE: BILINEAR, NEAREST NEIGHBOR, INVERSE DISTANCE, SPLINE, BINNING, SPECTRAL AND
TRIANGULATION. CERTAIN APPLICATIONS OF REGRIDDED DATA MAY NECESSITATE TWO SPECIALIZED
INTERPOLATION METHODS TO ACHIEVE REQUIRED PHYSICAL (EG, FLUX CONSERVATION) OR
MATHEMATICAL (EG, HIGHER ORDER DERIVATIVES) REQUIREMENTS: CONSERVATIVE AND PATCH. 

THE MOST COMMONLY USED METHODS OF CLIMATE GRID INTERPOLATION ARE BILINEAR,
CONSERVATIVE AND PATCH. THE BILINEAR METHOD IS EASY TO PROGRAM AND APPLY WHEN THE
SOURCE AND DESTINATION GRIDS ARE RECTILINEAR. VIRTUALLY ALL DATA PROCESSING
TOOLS PROVIDE A FUNCTION TO IMPLEMENT SOME FORM OF BILINEAR INTERPOLATION FOR
RECTILINEAR GRIDS. HOWEVER, CURVILINEAR AND UNSTRUCTURED GRIDS MAY INVOLVE
SOPHISTICATED SEARCHING ALGORITHMS TO DETERMINE THE POINTS SURROUNDING THE LOCATION
TO BE INTERPOLATED. 

SOME INTERPOLATION SCHEMES USE A MULTI-STEP APPROACH. INITIALLY, THE USER SPECIFIES

THE TYPE OF INTERPOLATION TO BE PERFORMED (EG, BILINEAR, CONSERVATIVE OR PATCH) AND THE
SOURCE AND DESTINATION GRID SPATIAL COORDINATES. THE SOFTWARE THEN GENERATES A NETCDF
FILE WHICH CONTAINS AN ARRAY OF WEIGHTS. DEPENDING UPON THE GRID STRUCTURES AND THE
SIZES, THIS MAY TAKE A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF TIME DUE TO SEARCHING REQUIREMENTS. FINALLY,
THE USER CAN READ THE GENERATED WEIGHTS AND PERFORM A 'SPARSE MATRIX MULTIPLY' TO EFFECT
THE REGRIDDING. THIS IS A VERY FAST OPERATION AND IS IDEALLY SUITED TO PROCESSING A LARGE
NUMBER OF GRIDS.

12) HIERARCHIAL DATA FORMAT

THE HIERARCHIAL DATA FORMAT IS

AVAILABLE IN TWO  VERSIONS: THE
ORIGINAL HDF4 AND THE MORE RECENT HDF5.
UNFORTUNATELY, HDF4 AND HDF5 INTERFACES
AND DATA MODELS ARE COMPLETELY
INCOMPATIBLE.  THE HDF5 DATA MODEL IS MORE
FLEXIBLE AND IS A "A TRUE HIERARCHICAL FILE
STRUCTURE, SIMILAR TO THE UNIX FILE SYSTEM."
HDF5 DOES HAVE SOME NEW FEATURES THAT ARE
APPEALING TO CLIMATE RESEARCH, SUCH AS,
PARALLEL I/O AND VARIABLE COMPRESSION. 
(NOTE: OUR EXPERIENCE IS THAT ANY
COMPRESSION LEVEL GREATER THAT '1' IS NOT
WORTH THE ADDITIONAL TIME REQUIRED FOR
THE INCREASED COMPRESSION.)

THE HDF{4/5}-EOS FORMAT EXTENSION DEFINES THREE ADDITIONAL DATA TYPES BASED ON
HDF OBJECTS: GRID, POINT, AND SWATH. THESE DATA TYPES ALLOW THE FILE CONTENTS TO BE
REFERENCED TO EARTH COORDINATES, SUCH AS LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE, AND TO TIME. AN
IRRITATING ISSUE IS THAT STANDARD HDF LIBRARY CALLS CANNOT READILY ACCESS GEOLOCATION
OR TIME DATA OR METADATA. USERS MUST USE THE HDF{4/5}-EOS INTERFACES.THE CONVERSE IS
ALSO TRUE. CERTAIN INFORMATION CAN ONLY BE ACCESSED VIA STANDARD HDF4 INTERFACES.
HENCE, BOTH INTERFACES MAY BE REQUIRED TO GET AT ALL THE INFORMATION ON THE FILE.

REFERENCES:

Atkinson GD. 1971. Forecasters’ Guide to Tropical Meteorology. University Press of the Pacific, Honolulu.

Hastenrath S. 1991. Climate Dynamics of the Tropics. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
Riehl H. 1979. The Climate and Weather of the Tropics. Academic Press, London.

"The Climate Data Guide: Text (ASCII) files." Retrieved from https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu/climate-data-tools-and-

analysis/text-ascii-files.

"The Climate Data Guide: Regridding Overview." Retrieved from https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu/climate-data-tools-

and-analysis/regridding-overview.

https://atmospheres.gsfc.nasa.gov/climate/index.php?section=138

https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu/climate-data-tools-and-analysis

https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/wea.53

https://www.worldweatheronline.com/pangasinan-weather-averages/sulu/ph.aspx

http://www.myweather2.com/City-Town/Philippines/Pangasinan/climate-profile.aspx

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CLIMATIC DATA AND ANALYSIS : WORLD

INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………………………………..

PROBLEM ………………………………………………………………………………….

SOLUTION …………………………………………………………………………………..

CLIMATIC DATA AND ANALYSIS : TROPIC REGION

INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………………………………..

PROBLEM …………………………………………………………………………………..

SOLUTION …………………………………………………………………………………..

CLIMATIC DATA AND ANALYSIS : PANGASINAN

INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………………………………..

CLIMATIC DATA & ANALYSIS TOOLS AND METHODS …………………………