Technical Documentation

The Arctic Meteorology and Climate Atlas provides new data for a data-sparse region of the earth, and presents new and existing data products in formats that are easy to use for climate research. This Atlas compliments the Environmental Working Group's oceanographic and sea ice atlases and contributes to a comprehensive interpretation of the Arctic climate system. Scientific applications foreseen for these data include: investigation of evidence for climatic change over the four decades from 1951 through 1990; examination of interannual variability of climate in the coastal zone and in the central Arctic; and regional study of air mass transformation from open water to ice-covered ocean.

Printable Versions

Any of the HTML pages of data documentation can be printed directly from your web browser. If you would like to print out the entire set of technical documents (81 pages), an Adobe® Acrobat® and Postscript version are included for your convenience. You can access these files here:

Adobe Acrobat Printable Version

Postcript File for Printing


The technical documentation describes data products and data sources. Use the HTML interface to browse the data and see the temporal and spatial coverage of the data. All data are in ASCII files. Check the Glossary in the Primer section for unfamiliar terms or instruments. This document was written by F. Fetterer except where otherwise noted.

Summary of Atlas Data Sets

Gridded Fields

Climatological monthly mean fields of meteorological parameters are provided in an easy-to-use format. Decadal mean fields for those parameters with sufficient data for a decadal analysis are included. These fields are based on the best available existing products improved, when possible, with new data obtained for this Atlas.

Browse files are .gif format images with a color bar and contours. These allow you to quickly visualize the content of the corresponding ASCII data files. The ASCII EASE-Grid format files have a cell size of 250 kilometers. Please read the technical documentation for the parameter of interest to find complete information on data sources and methods of compiling these fields. The fields are:

Two-meter air temperature:  Monthly means, standard deviation, and coefficient of variation for 1980s and 1990s.

Sea level pressure:  Decadal monthly means for 1950s through 1990s; long-term monthly means for 1951 through 1990; long-term monthly means for 1961 through 1990 (the WMO period); and fields of anomaly, standard deviation, and coefficient of variation.

Precipitation:  Monthly mean fields 1951 to 1990.

Cloud:  Decadal monthly mean fields of total and low cloud cover (percent) for 1952 through 1995; long-term monthly mean fields of total and low cloud cover (percent) for 1952 through 1995.

Snow:  Monthly mean snow depth fields on land for the period 1966 through 1982; monthly mean snow depth fields for the Arctic Ocean 1954 through 1991; monthly mean snow water equivalent fields for the Arctic Ocean 1954 through 1991.

Global solar radiation:  Climatological monthly means. In addition, the "Gridded Fields" section of the Atlas contains a climatology of direct, total (or global) and net radiation from Russian and other sources, compiled and scanned at AARI by M. S. Marshunova.

Coastal Stations

Monthly means of meteorological observation data from 65 Russian and 24 western coastal and island stations for a period that includes the early 1950s through 1990 are provided in uniformat files. The Russian station observations were provided by the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI), St. Petersburg, and include two-meter air temperature, sea level pressure, total and low cloud amount, and relative humidity. The western station observations include sea level pressure, air temperature, and precipitation. After 1960, a moisture parameter (relative humidity or dew point temperature) is generally available. (We use the term "western" loosely to distinguish Russian from non-Russian stations.) Use the HTML interface to see the temporal coverage of each parameter at each station. The interface can also be used to browse the data by plotting parameters.

Floating Platforms

The data in this section of the Atlas, taken together, provide observations with better spatial and temporal coverage of the Arctic ocean than has generally been available in the past. These data are three or six hourly synoptic data, monthly means, or in the case of Drifting Automatic Radiometeorological Stations, once daily observations. Data are from:

Russian "North Pole" drifting stations:  Two-meter air temperature, sea level pressure, total and low cloud, surface temperature, and wind velocity, for years spanning 1938 to 1991.

Western drifting stations:  The earliest data are from the Fram in 1893, and the latest are from the AIDJEX experiment in 1975 and 1976. Parameters vary but all stations include air temperature, pressure, wind, and humidity data.

Drifting Automatic Radiometeorological Stations (DARMS):  Wind, pressure and temperature data from 1958 through 1975 from the Russian program.

Ice patrol ships:  Wind, pressure, air temperature, sea surface temperature, total cloud amount, low cloud amount, and relative humidity for voyages from 1952 through 1982.

To view the time coverage for any parameter from any station, and to see a plot of the individual station track, use the Atlas HTML interface. (These options are not available for DARMS data due to the large number of stations). The data are in uniformat files.