Format of data files

(It may be necessary, depending on the data-set, to uncompress and unpack the raw files before the data files become available. See the specific data-set page for details.) There is also a software page.

An elevations file for each grid is also available. These files implicitly describes the land-sea mask, since only land boxes are given elevations. The format is the same as that of the data files, and these therefore represent examples of the data file format.

Each data file has the following structure:

The header lines for a global 0.5 degree grid may look something like this:
Tyndall Centre file created by Tim Mitchell on 03.04.2001 at 14:00
.cld = cloud cover (percentage)
0.5deg clim6190 ->lan
[Long=-180.00, 180.00] [Lati= -90.00, 90.00] [Grid X,Y= 720, 360]
[Boxes= 67420] [Years=1990-1990] [Multi= 0.1000] [Missing=-999]

The header lines for a European 10 minute grid may look something like this:
Tyndall Centre file created by Tim Mitchell on 14.05.2001 at 15:05
.elv = elevation (km)
0.5deg Europe lan ->ATEAM
[Long= -11.00, 32.00] [Lati= 34.00, 72.00] [Grid X,Y= 258, 228]
[Boxes= 31143] [Years=1990-1990] [Multi= 0.0010] [Missing=-999]

The header lines give the following information:

The information for an individual grid-box may look something like this:
Grid-ref= 1, 148
720 750 750 700 630 600 610 610 660 670 710 720

The information for an individual grid-box consists of:

If you want a confirmed datum for checking purposes:
Norwich, UK = 1deg 19min E, 52deg 38min N
Therefore x, y = 363, 286
December 2000 precip = 75.6mm (CRU TS 2.0)
December 2002 precip = 90.0mm (CRU TS 2.1)