30 YEAR GLOBAL CLIMATE DATA BASE

The IIASA Climate Database was created at the International Institute for Applied System Analyses (IIASA; Laxenburg, Austria) by Rik Leemans and Wolfgang P. Cramer to represent current global climate. There are three variables included in the Database: average monthly cloudiness, precipitation and temperature; and 12 monthly values per variable. These values were calculated from existing historical weather records of a diverse nature, but with the common feature that most cover at least five years during the period between 1931 and 1960.

The 70+ stations available have been selected with in the area of LAT/LONG - LAT/LONG which results in a rectangulat domain in Peter's projection using ETOPO5 as the background map.

The 18 climatic variables available for these stations (as monthly average over up to 30 years in the observation period) include:

The variables available for each station differ; therefor, a prioty sequence has been defined:

1. mean daily temperature
   alternative:
   • mean daily maximum temperature
   • mean daily minimum temperature
   • absolute maximum temperature
   • absolute minimum temperature
2. mean precipitation
   alternative:
   • maximum precipitation
   • minimum precipitation
   • maximum precipitation in 24 hours
   • days with precipitation > 2.5 mm
   • mean relativ humidity
3. mean potential evapotranspiration
4. soil moisture
5. mean windspeed
   alternative:
   • predominant direction of the wind
6. mean duration of sunshine
   alternative:
   • mean quantity of radiation
   • monthly total transmittance

   Data Source:
   Leemans, Rik and Wolfgang P. Cramer, 1991.   The IIASA Database for Mean Monthly Values of Temperature, Preicipitation and Cloudiness of a Global Terrestrial Grid. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria, RR-91-18, 62 pages.