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NOAA’s NEW U.S. CLIMATE ATLAS
January
21, 2003 — A new CD-ROM of the Climate Atlas of the United States
(version 2.0) is now available from NOAA. The CD-ROM atlas consists of
more than 2,000 color maps that depict normal or mean temperature, precipitation,
snow and other parameters for all areas of the United States for the period
1961-1990. The atlas, produced the NOAA National Climatic Data Center
in Asheville, N.C., replaces the very popular paper copy Climatic Atlas
of the United States published in 1968, and supersedes the earlier CD-ROM
(version 1.0) published in 2000 that only contained maps for the contiguous
48 states. The new atlas — which includes Alaska and Hawaii —
now contains weather station data for 7,700 locations, along with detailed
documentation of the data sets used to generate the maps.
The
purpose of this atlas is to depict the climate of the United States in
terms of the spatial distribution and variation of major climatic elements.
Climate has a profound — often controlling — effect upon the
life, mood, health and activity of all of us. The Climate Atlas will provide
information for commercial, industrial and agricultural applications,
researchers, educational institutions, as well as for the general public.
Information contained in the atlas will be used for planning, engineering
and scheduling purposes. Its primary purpose is to show the "normal"
or average spatial patterns for the various climatic parameters. Maps
of extreme climate events such as tornado tracks, hurricane landfall and
hail frequency are also included.
NCDC
developed the new atlas using innovative technology and Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) to generate the high quality maps. Specifically, Parameter-elevation
Regressions on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM), an analytical spatial
climate model developed by the Spatial Climatic Analysis Service at Oregon
State University, was used to produce 4 x 4 km grids for many of the parameters.
PRISM is a highly advanced system, which was designed to map climate in
the most difficult situations — including high mountains, rain shadows,
temperature inversions, coastal regions, and other complex climatic regimes.
It uses station point data, a digital elevation model (DEM), and other
spatial data sets in conjunction with ESRI’s (Environmental Systems
Research Institute) ArcInfo to generate the monthly and annual grids.
NCDC then generated maps of these PRISM grids using ESRI’s ArcView.
There are also several elements — such as wind, sea level pressure,
days with fog, etc. — that are not suitable for treatment by PRISM
because they are reported by fewer stations, or because they lack a topographic
or elevation influence that is accounted for in PRISM. NCDC created grids
for these elements using the inverse distance weighting function in ESRI’s
ArcView.
The
user may install the Atlas onto a local drive, or run the Atlas from the
CD. From the Atlas interface, the user chooses an element type (temperature,
precipitation, snow, etc.), an element (mean, maximum, record extreme,
etc.), and a geographic area (Lower 48, Alaska or Hawaii). The Atlas displays
maps of the selected element and area using ESRI's ArcExplorer, which
is included on the CD. ArcExplorer provides GIS capabilities, such as
zoom, query, identify and theme layering.
The Climate Atlas CD-ROM is available from NCDC at a cost of $130 (online) or $175 (off-line) plus $11 shipping and handling charge. You can place your order, view sample maps or learn more information about this product at: NOAA’s Climate Atlas of the United States. Individual Atlas maps are also available online in PDF and in ESRI shape file formats from NCDC's "Online Store" at: Climate Atlas of the United States.
Relevant
Web Sites
NOAA's National
Climatic Data Center (NCDC)
NOAA’s Climate Atlas of the United States
Climate Atlas of the United States - individual PDF & shape files
Media
Contact:
Patricia
Viets, NOAA Satellite and Information
Services, (301) 4587-5005.