Historical Arctic and Antarctic Surface Observational Datasets

A new historical data set of surface observational data from several station locations in the Arctic and Antarctic is now available through the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC). This product consists of basic meteorological data extracted from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) DATSAV2 and DATSAV3 surface observation data base. The mandatory data section contains meteorological information on basic parameters such as wind speed and direction, surface pressure, air temperature and visibility. These are the most commonly reported parameters and are available most of the time. The data are stored in ASCII files for each station and year that data are available and browse images are also provided. There are a total of 104 stations for the Arctic and 136 for the Antarctic. The time period of coverage starts as early as 1913 in the Arctic and extends through 2002, although data gaps occur and data are available for different years at different stations.