New ECMWF Seasonal Forecast (hindcast) Ensemble dataset ======================================================= In support of the COAPEC Thematic Programme the BADC has extracted ECMWF Seasonal Forecast ensemble data. These data are also known as "Hindcasts" as they are forecasts run retrospectively. The dataset includes monthly means, maxima, minima and standard deviations for the available surface variables for the period 1987-2001 (with 2002 onwards currently being extracted). Atmospheric variables are only currently available as monthly means. There are 33 parameters held on surface or single levels including winds, temperatures, heat fluxes, radiation, precipitation and soil moisture. Geopotential, Temperature, Specific Humidity, Relative Vorticity and Divergence are available on pressure levels. The data is held on a regular 1.875 x 1.875 degree grid in GRIB format. For each month there are six forecast months archived, with 5 ensemble members for 10 months of the year, and 40 ensemble members in May and November of each year. The data is now available to BADC users as part of the main ECMWF Operational archive with documentation located at: Further documentation on the seasonal forecasts is available at the following ECMWF links: BADC Support. 12th March 2004.

Bolton Experiment data now available at the BADC ================================================ The Bolton Experiment was a NERC project with matching funds from industry which took place between 1999 and 2002. The study tested the proposal that the difference in attenuation at two microwave frequencies along a given path can provide an accurate estimate of rainfall rate. The area selected for study was the town of Bolton in north-west England. More information about the Bolton Experiment data held at the BADC can be found at: ______________ BADC Support 17/02/2004

ERA-40 Live Access Server (LAS) Launched ======================================== The BADC is pleased to announce that we have launched the ERA-40 Live Access Server (LAS). This service allows sub-sets, plots and animations to be created dynamically from the ERA-40 dataset. The BADC LAS provides a multi-functional web-interface to large geospatial datasets. It is particularly suited to global gridded data such as the ERA-40 Re-analyses. Users registered for the ERA-40 data held at the BADC can log in to the BADC LAS to extract subsets of the dataset. All level types and parameters are available and all data has been transformed to a 1° x 1° grid (this was the favoured resolution in a user questionnaire). The BADC LAS allows data sub-setting in latitude, longitude, altitude and time. The output can be obtained in a number of formats including gif and postscript image files, or NetCDF data files. A limited animation facility is also available. Please note the ERA-40 LAS is only available to users that are registered for access to ERA-40. Users must log-in to the usual BADC web site before entering the LAS, after which you can go directly to the LAS in any subsequent sessions. The LAS intended for users with low data volume requirements. If it receives large requests it will ignore them and inform you that it is doing so. Moderate to high data volume users should contact BADC Support (badc@rl.ac.uk). More information about the LAS is available on the ERA-40 Regular Gridded Data page: BADC Support. 16 January 2004.

Met Office Wind Profiler data is now available from the BADC. ============================================================================== In the late 1990's The Met Office purchased four boundary-layer wind-profilers (nominally 1 GHz), from Radian. The instruments are located at Camborne, Dunkeswell and Wattisham. The fourth was operated at the NERC MST Radar site at Capel Dewi, near Aberystwyth between November 1999 and March 2002; it has now been relocated to South Uist. Data from these instruments is now available at the BADC for the following dates: Camborne from 1998 to 2002, Dunkeswell from 1999 to 2002, and Wattisham from 2001 to 2002. Data from the fourth wind-profiler when it was located at Aberystwyth is also available. More information about the wind profiler data held at the BADC can be found at: BADC Support 07th January 2004

The TOMS team expects to be back in nominal real-time operation next week (i.e. the week of December 1, 2003). ...

Met Office Stratospheric Analyses - New Dynamics The assimilation system that produces the Met Office stratospheric data will soon be changed to use the New Dynamics (ND) version of the Unified Model. The changeover is scheduled for 28th October 2003. **Users of the data need to be aware of the following points:** - The data will be ordered from South to North, instead of North to South. - As before, the wind components (u and v) will be produced on a grid that is staggered relative to the mass grid (used for T and z). The output fields use the "Arakawa B grid" staggering, as before, even though the ND model uses a "C grid" staggering. - The vertical velocity will be w (dz/dt), rather than omega (dP/dt), and will be output on the mass grid. - Three additional UARS levels will be output (25 instead of 22), up to 0.1 hPa (instead of 0.316 hPa). If you use the grid definitions in the PP header record, the changes to the ordering of the data will be transparent, otherwise you will need modify your programs to allow for those changes. Access routines are supplied by the Met Office to help users read the data files. The original versions were written to access data from the UARS CDHF, but recent versions also read PP format data, as supplied to the BADC. A revised version of the access routines has been written (version 5c - file name acsasm_v5c.f). This is very similar to the previous version (5b), except that it will recognize the new w fields (as well as omega), and the default settings for field types and number of levels have been modified for New Dynamics. VAX/VMS-specific code (only a few lines) has been deleted. At the BADC, the new data files can be found in the current year assimilated data directory: /badc/ukmo-assim/data/standard/2003/ The associated documentation, as provided by the Met Office is available in the assimilated data doc directory: /badc/ukmo-assim/doc/ieee_binary/new_dynamics/ The Assimilated data documentation on the BADC Web pages will be updated shortly. BADC Support 28th October 2003

The Berlin Stratospheric data series now available from BADC ============================================================ The Berlin stratospheric data series contains temperature and geopotential height data on the 100, 50, 30, 10 mb pressure surfaces produced at the Meteorological Institute, Free University of Berlin, from radiosonde data and rocket observations. The data covers the northern hemisphere during the years 1957 to 2001 and is available on both a 10° x 10° and 5° x 5° grid. More information available at BADC Team 23/10/2003

Due to an electricity supply shutdown at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (18-19th October 2003), the BADC File server will be consequently temporarily shutdown **from Friday 17th October at 3pm to Sunday 19th October**. The BADC file server is expected to be back online from Monday 20th October. This shutdown unfortunately implies that the BADC Web site and access to data and services will be temporarily unavailable. We are sorry for the inconvenience this may cause. BADC Support 16/10/03.

The BADC help pages now includes a description and tutorial of two software packages used extensively in the atmospheric sciences: * **CDAT** - see * **GrADS** - see We have also made a GrADS/GRIB interface page which is relevant to all users of our datasets held in GRIB format. This is located at: Climate Data Analysis Tools (CDAT) is a freely available software infrastructure used for analysis, manipulation and plotting of atmospheric science (and other) data. It is designed for gridded datasets but can also cope with other types. Below are some key features of CDAT: * the software is open-source, consisting of a collection of Python modules. * available for multiple platforms (but not Windows). * a choice of interfaces: command-line, scripting or graphical user-interface (Visual CDAT (VCDAT)). * an XML-based format and tools for aggregating large datasets. * manipulation of large data arrays possible due to use of Python *Numeric* package. * interfaces to external packages such as the Live Access Server (LAS) for web-based access to datasets.< /LI> Grid Analysis and Display System (GrADS) is a freely available package used for analysis, manipulation and plotting of earth science data. It is designed for gridded datasets but can also cope with station data. Below are some key features of GrADS: * available for multiple platforms as an executable (including Windows). * accessible by both a command-line and scripting interface. * support for multiple common data formats. * significant support for user-defined plotting. * manipulation of large 4-D datasets. * a rich set of built-in functions for data manipulation. Ag Stephens, BADC, 11th September 2003