Global Atmospheric Circulation Grids from 1958 to 1989

Thirty-two years of monthly gridded analyses describe atmospheric general circulation across the troposphere and stratosphere. Twenty-two statistical quantities, including means, variances, and covariances for wind, temperature, geopotential height, and moisture, are provided for eleven vertical levels. The Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) produced this dataset from global upper air soundings, covering May 1958 through December 1989.

Use Cases

• Compare climate model outputs to observed monthly means of temperature and geopotential height across vertical levels.
• Analyze covariance terms between wind and moisture fields to study atmospheric teleconnections.
• Investigate temporal trends in monthly variances of horizontal wind divergence over the 32-year period.
• Validate reanalysis products using the gridded statistical parameters for wind and temperature.
• Assess the reliability of near-surface (900mb and below) analyses versus higher-level data for specific regions.

Strengths

• 32-year temporal coverage from May 1958 to December 1989.
• 22 monthly statistical quantities calculated across 11 vertical levels.
• Data derived from global upper air soundings, providing broad spatial coverage.

Limitations

• Analyses near the surface (900mb and below) are less reliable due to incomplete rawinsonde reports.
• Data is temporally stale, with the last update in March 1990 and no records beyond 1989.

Provenance

Source

Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL), provided by Bram Oort.

Collection Method

Created from global upper air soundings (rawinsondes) and gridded.

Time Range

May 1958 to December 1989.

Freshness

Last updated 1990-03-31; historical archive with no ongoing updates.

Geography

Global.