TITLE OF THE DATA SET A Global Geographic Information System Data Base of Storm Occurrences and Other Climatic Phenomena Affecting Coastal Zones CONTRIBUTORS Kevin R. Birdwell Richard C. Daniels Department of Geoscience Department of Geography Murray State University Miami University Murray, KY 42071 Oxford, OH 45056 USA USA SCOPE OF THE DATA The climatological data base described here offers information on tropical storms, hurricanes, super typhoons, mean forward velocities of tropical cyclones, extratropical cyclones, polar air cloud vortices (polar lows), cyclonicity, winds in monsoon regions, and sea-ice concentrations. The spatial extent of the data variables varies considerably (regional to global). This data set may be used by raster or vector geographic information systems (GISs). The data set's primary focus is to quantify the occurrence of synoptic storms and other climatological factors that affect coastlines. The data set contains eight different data groups, with a total of 61 data variables. The data variables were selected on the basis of their potential to affect coastal erosion rates. Most of the data variables provide information on various storm frequencies and/or probabilities of occurrence. Spatial coverage varies by data group. All data groups listed below except (3) are referenced to 1 x 1 degree or 5 x 5 degree grid cells of latitude and long- itude [data group (3) is referenced by state]. The eight data groups are as follows: 1. Annual probabilities of occurrence of tropical storms and hurricanes for coastal areas of the United States, Canada, and Bermuda by 1 x 1 degree grid cells. 2. (a) Annual probabilities of occurrence of tropical storms, hurricanes, and super typhoons (winds 67 m/s or greater) for the world by 5 x 5 degree grid cells. (b) Mean forward velocities of tropical cyclones (without regard to tropical cyclone intensity) for the world by 5 x 5 degree grid cells. 3. The number of hurricane strikes for the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts by state and Saffir-Simpson hurricane category. 4. (a) Mean monthly and annual number of extratropical cyclogeneses for the Northern Hemisphere by 5 x 5 degree grid cells. (b) Mean monthly and annual number of extratropical cyclone occurrences for the Northern Hemisphere by 5 x 5 degree grid cells. 5. Mean number of polar lows (polar air cloud vortices) per winter month for the North Pacific Ocean and Southern Hemisphere by 5 x 5 degree grid cells. 6. (a) Mean and/or relative number of cyclones (without regard to cyclone type) for January, July, and the year for the world by 5 x 5 degree grid cells. (b) Mean number of hours of cyclone occurrence (without regard to cyclone type) for January, July, and the year for the Southern Hemisphere by 5 x 5 degree grid cells. 7. Index of the influence of winds on coastlines in the African, Asian, and Australian monsoon regions by 1 x 1 degree grid cells. 8. Mean annual sea-ice concentrations for Alaskan and U.S. Atlantic coastal areas by 1 x 1 degree grid cells. This data set comprises data extracted from a variety of sources, including publications of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Navy, foreign government agencies, universities, and other miscellaneous sources. DATA FORMATS Thirty-four files are provided in this subdirectory (NDP035) including this documentation file (NDP035.TXT), one vector coordinate file (HCSTATE.BNA), eight flat ASCII and ARC/INFO export data files (*.ASC & *.EOO), and eight FORTRAN and SAS retrieval codes to read and print each of the flat ASCII data files (*.FOR & *.SAS). The ARC/INFO export files are exported coverages that must be read into an ARC/INFO GIS using the IMPORT command (this may be done after the files have been uploaded onto a computer system). These coverages are in a GEOGRAPHIC projection, which means that the coverages are projected in a spherical reference grid using latitude and longitude coordinates that are stored in decimal degrees (DD). As a result of using DD for the coordinate system, the reference grids in this NDP are not equal area or equal distance in nature. The flat ASCII data files are provided to allow use of these data by users who do not have access to ARC/INFO. These files contain the same information contained in the ARC/INFO export files. The format and contents of each of these flat ASCII files are described in the following section. DATA GROUP TC10: ANNUAL PROBABILITIES OF OCCURRENCE OF TROPICAL STORMS AND HURRICANES FOR COASTAL AREAS OF THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, AND BERMUDA BY 1 X 1 DEGREE GRID CELLS The names of the ARC/INFO coverage and flat ASCII file are TC10.E00 (File 4) and TC10.ASC (File 5), respectively. A summary of the format used for File 5 follows: 10 READ(UNIT=5,FMT=100,END=999) AREA,PERIMETER,TC10, 1 TC10ID,TS,TY 100 FORMAT(2F13.3,2I6,2F9.2) The variables in data group TC10 are listed as they appear in TC10.ASC (File 5) in Table 8. Table 8. Variable formats for TC10.ASC (File 5) Variable Column Column Variable Variable description name start end type AREA 1 13 Real System variable - area of each grid cell in map units PERIMETER 14 26 Real System variable - perimeter of each grid cell in map units TC10 27 32 Integer System variable - internal grid cell identifier TC10ID 33 38 Integer System variable - external grid cell identifier TS 39 47 Real Data variable - annual probability of occurrence of tropical storms for each grid cell TY 48 56 Real Data variable - annual probability of occurrence of hurricanes for each grid cell Flags are used in data group TC10 for data variables TS and TY under the following circumstances: (1) when the data record for a given grid cell provided what was believed to be a false-zero value, and (2) to indicate areas where tropical cyclones are not known to occur. All flags have data values greater than 100 and are defined as follows: 200.00 - Indicates that no tropical cyclone activity has been observed for the given data variable in the given grid cell during the period of record; however, the grid cell may be an area of rare or occasional tropical cyclone activity for the data variable at hand. 999.00 - Indicates that tropical cyclones of at least tropical storm intensity (sustained winds greater than 17.5 m/s) are not known to occur in the given grid cell (i.e., 999 is equivalent to zero). DATA GROUP TC50: ANNUAL PROBABILITIES OF OCCURRENCE OF TROPICAL STORMS, HURRICANES, AND SUPER TYPHOONS FOR THE WORLD BY 5 X 5 DEGREE GRID CELLS AND MEAN FORWARD VELOCITIES OF TROPICAL CYCLONES FOR THE WORLD BY 5 X 5 DEGREE GRID CELLS. The names of the ARC/INFO coverage and flat ASCII file are TC50.E00 (File 8) and TC50.ASC (File 9), respectively. A summary of the format used for File 9 follows: 10 READ(UNIT=5,FMT=100,END=999) AREA,PERIMETER,TC50, 1 TC50ID,TS,TY,TCV,STY 100 FORMAT(2F13.3,2I6,4F9.2) The variables in data group TC50 are listed as they appear in TC50.ASC (File 9) in Table 9. Table 9. Variable formats for TC50.ASC (File 9) Variable Column Column Variable Variable description name start end type AREA 1 13 Real System variable - area of each grid cell in map units PERIMETER 14 26 Real System variable - perimeter of each grid cell in map units TC50 27 32 Integer System variable - internal grid cell identifier TC50ID 33 38 Integer System variable - external grid cell identifier TS 39 47 Real Data variable - annual probability of occurrence of tropical storms for each grid cell TY 48 56 Real Data variable - annual probability of occurrence of hurricanes for each grid cell STY 57 65 Real Data variable - annual probability of occurrence of super typhoons for each grid cell TCV 66 74 Real Data variable - mean forward velocity of tropical cyclones (without regard to tropical cyclone intensity) for each grid cell in meters per second Flags have been added to the data values of data group TC50 for data variables TS, TY, STY, and TCV under the following circumstances: (1) when the data record used for a given grid cell provided what was believed to be a false-zero value, and (2) to indicate areas where tropical cyclones are not known to occur. All flags have data values greater than 100. Each is explained in the following: 200.10 to 299.90 - Indicates that no tropical cyclone activity has been observed for the given data variable in the given grid cell during the period of record; however, the grid cell may represent an area of rare or occasional activity for the data variable at hand. 999.00 - Indicates that tropical cyclones of at least tropical storm intensity are not known to occur in the given grid cell (i.e., 999 is equivalent to zero). A 200 digit in a data value for data variables TS, TY, and STY indicates that the remaining digits are an estimate of the probability of occurrence in percent for the given data variable. To obtain the estimated percent likelihood of occurrence in the given grid cell, subtract 200. A 200 digit in a data value for data variable TCV indicates that the remaining digits are an estimate of the mean forward velocity of tropical cyclones in meters per second. To obtain the estimated mean forward velocity of tropical cyclones for data variable TCV for a given grid cell, subtract 200. DATA GROUP HCSTATE: NUMBER OF HURRICANE STRIKES FOR THE U.S. ATLANTIC AND GULF COASTS BY STATE AND SAFFIR-SIMPSON CATEGORY The names of the ARC/INFO export file, flat ASCII data file, and ASCII vector coordinate file are HCSTATE.E00 (File 12), HCSTATE.ASC (File 13), and HCSTATE.BNA (File 14), respectively. A summary of the format used for File 13 follows: 10 READ(UNIT=5,FMT=100,END=999) AREA,PERIMETER,HCSTATE, 1 HCSTATEID,C1,C2,C3,C4,C5 100 FORMAT(F10.3,F13.3,I6,I9,F10.0,4F5.0) The variables in data group HCSTATE are listed as they appear in HCSTATE.ASC (File 13) in Table 10. Table 10. Variable formats for HCSTATE.ASC (File 13) Variable Column Column Variable Variable description name start end type AREA 1 10 Real System variable - area of each grid cell in map units PERIMETER 11 23 Real System variable - perimeter of each grid cell in map units HCSTATE 24 29 Integer System variable - internal grid cell identifier HCSTATEID 30 38 Integer System variable - external grid cell identifier C1 39 48 Real Data variable - number of hurricane centers of Saffir-Simpson Class 1 that have crossed a given state or substate coastline during the period of record C2 49 53 Real Data variable - number of hurricane centers of Saffir-Simpson Class 2 that have crossed a given state or substate coastline during the period of record C3 54 58 Real Data variable - number of hurricane centers of Saffir-Simpson Class 3 that have crossed a given state or substate coastline during the period of record C4 59 63 Real Data variable - number of hurricane centers of Saffir-Simpson Class 4 that have crossed a given state or substate coastline during the period of record C5 64 68 Real Data variable - number of hurricane centers of Saffir-Simpson Class 5 that have crossed a given state or substate coastline during the period of record Table 11 lists the geographic name and polygon ID for each polygon in this data group. Figure 6 of Part 1 of this document shows the geographic locations of these polygons. Table 11. Geographic names of each polygon in data group HCSTATE (Files 12, 13, and 14) HCSTATE-ID Location HCSTATE-ID Location 1 Maine 2 N. Hampshire 3 New York 4 Massachusetts 5 Pennsylvania 6 Connecticut 7 Rhode Island 8 New Jersey 9 New York 10 Delaware 11 Maryland 12 Virginia 13 Virginia 14 N. Carolina 15 N. Carolina 16 Northern Texas 17 N. Carolina 18 N. Carolina 19 S. Carolina 20 Alabama 21 Mississippi 22 Georgia 23 Louisiana 24 Central Texas 25 NW Florida 26 NE Florida 27 NW Florida 28 NE Florida 29 Northern Texas 30 NE Florida 31 Southern Texas 32 NE Florida 33 NE Florida 34 SE Florida 35 SE Florida 36 SE Florida 37 Central Texas 38 SW Florida 39 SW Florida 40 Southern Texas 41 Southern Texas 42 SW Florida Table 12 displays an example of the format of the data within HCSTATE.BNA (File 14), which contains the vector boundaries for the data within this data group. Table 12. Sample listing from the vector coordinate file HCSTATE.BNA (File 14) FORMAT: Polygon ID, number of vertices in polygon longitude, latitude "1",59 -71.088,45.3014 (Point 1) -70.6407,45.4194 -70.5033,45.6806 -70.2455,45.9355 -70.279,46.1999 -70.0352,46.4806 -69.8728,46.8154 -69.5779,47.1142 -69.274,47.4105 -69.0446,47.2721 (Point 10) ... -71.088,45.3014 (Point 59, closes polygon) "2",16 -71.088,45.3014 (Point 1) ... No flags are added to the data variables of data group HCSTATE. However, data values for the five data variables are not directly comparable between different polygons. This results from different coastal lengths represented by each of the state and substate polygons. Twenty-four states and substates represent separate data entities in this data group. These 24 entities, however, are described by 42 polygons in the data group. The additional polygons are islands and/or fragments of various states or substates, which are separated from the main body of the state or substate to which they belong. Each island polygon contains the same data values as the state or substate of which it is a part. DATA GROUP XCNORTH: MEAN NUMBER OF EXTRATROPICAL CYCLOGENESES BY MONTH AND YEAR FOR THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE BY 5 X 5 DEGREE GRID CELLS AND THE MEAN NUMBER OF EXTRATROPICAL CYCLONE OCCURRENCES BY MONTH AND YEAR FOR THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE BY 5 X 5 DEGREE GRID CELLS The names of the ARC/INFO coverage and flat ASCII file are XCNORTH.E00 (File 17) and XCNORTH.ASC (File 18) respectively. A summary of the format used for File 18 follows: 10 READ(UNIT=5,FMT=100) AREA,PERIMETER,XCNORTH, 1 XCNORTHID,CGJA,CFJA,CGFE,CFFE,CGMR,CFMR,CGAP, CFAP,CGMY,CFMY, 2 CGJN READ(UNIT=5,FMT=101,END=999)CFJN,CGJL,CFJL,CGAG,CFAG,CGSP, 1 CFSP,CGOB,CFOB,CGNV,CFNV,CGDC,CFDC,CGAN,CFAN 100 FORMAT(2F12.3,2I5,11F8.2) 101 FORMAT(15F8.2) The variables in data group XCNORTH are listed as they appear in XCNORTH.ASC (File 18) in Table 13. Table 13. Variable formats for XCNORTH.ASC (File 18) Variable Column Column Variable Variable description name start end type AREA 1 12 Real System variable - area of each grid cell in map units PERIMETER 13 24 Real System variable - perimeter of each grid cell in map units XCNORTH 25 29 Integer System variable - internal grid cell identifier XCNORTHID 30 34 Integer System variable - external grid cell identifier CGJA 35 42 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclogeneses per January for each grid cell CFJA 43 50 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclone occurrences per January for each grid cell CGFE 51 58 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclogeneses per February for each grid cell CFFE 59 66 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclone occurrences per February for each grid cell CGMR 67 74 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclogeneses per March for each grid cell CFMR 75 82 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclone occurrences per March for each grid cell CGAP 83 90 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclogeneses per April for each grid cell CFAP 91 98 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclone occurrences per April for each grid cell CGMY 99 106 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclogeneses per May for each grid cell CFMY 107 114 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclone occurrences per May for each grid cell CGJN 115 122 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclogeneses per June for each grid cell The following line reads CFJN 1 8 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclone occurrences per June for each grid cell CGJL 9 16 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclogeneses per July for each grid cell CFJL 17 24 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclone occurrences per July for each grid cell CGAG 25 32 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclogeneses per August for each grid cell CFAG 33 40 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclone occurrences per August for each grid cell CGSP 41 48 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclogeneses per September for each grid cell CFSP 49 56 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclone occurrences per September for each grid cell CGOB 57 64 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclogeneses per October for each grid cell CFOB 65 72 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclone occurrences per October for each grid cell CGNV 73 80 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclogeneses per November for each grid cell CFNV 81 88 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclone occurrences per November for each grid cell CGDC 89 96 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclogeneses per December for each grid cell CFDC 97 104 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclone occurrences per December for each grid cell CGAN 105 112 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclogeneses per year for each cell CFAN 113 120 Real Data variable - mean number of extratropical cyclone occurrences per year for each grid cell Flags are added to the data values of data group XCNORTH under the following circumstances: (1) to indicate Northern Hemisphere "tropical" zones and (2) to indicate the unavailability of data. Flagged data always have data values greater than 100. The flags are defined as follows: 888.00 - Indicates that the data value is referenced to a 5 x 5 degree grid cell that is located between 0 degrees and 20 degrees North latitude. Polygons within this area are generally tropical in nature. As a result, extratropical cyclone activity is either rare or nonexistent. 999.00 - This data value indicates that no data are available for the given grid cell. This data group has not been significantly corrected for latitudinal differences in the sizes of 5 x 5 degree grid cells of latitude-longitude. Extratropical cyclone occurrence data variables (those beginning with CF) have received no area corrections. The extratropical cyclogenesis data variables (those beginning with CG) have been slightly corrected for latitudes above 65 degrees North. (See Appendix A for information on how the CG variables have been corrected for latitude.) DATA GROUP POLARLOW: MEAN NUMBER OF POLAR LOWS PER WINTER MONTH FOR THE NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN AND SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE BY 5 X 5 DEGREE GRID CELLS The names of the ARC/INFO coverage and flat ASCII file are POLARLOW.E00 (File 21) and POLARLOW.ASC (File 22) respectively. A summary of the format used for file 22 follows: 10 READ(UNIT=5,FMT=100,END=999) AREA,PERIMETER,PLOW, 1 PLOWID,COMMA,SPIRAL,POLARLOW 100 FORMAT(2F13.3,2I6,3F9.2) The variables in data group POLARLOW are listed as they appear in POLARLOW.ASC (File 22) in Table 14. Table 14. Variable formats for POLARLOW.ASC (File 22) Variable Column Column Variable Variable description name start end type AREA 1 13 Real System variable - area of each grid cell in map units PERIMETER 14 26 Real System variable - perimeter of each grid cell in map units PLOW 27 32 Integer System variable - internal grid cell identifier PLOWID 33 38 Integer System variable - external grid cell identifier COMMA 39 47 Real Data variable - mean number of comma-form polar lows per winter month for each grid cell SPIRAL 48 56 Real Data variable - mean number of spiral-form polar lows per winter month for each grid cell POLARLOW 57 65 Real Data variable - mean number of polar lows per winter month (comma- and spiral-form) for each grid cell The following flags are added to the data values of data group POLARLOW in order to (1) indicate areas of possible rare polar-low occurrence and (2) indicate the unavailability of data. Flagged data always have values greater than 100. The two types of flags in the data values are explained below: 200.00 - Indicates that polar-low occurrence is a possibility in the given grid cell; however, the period of record was not sufficient to indicate polar-low activity. This flag was used only for data variable POLARLOW. 999.00 - Indicates that data on the occurrence of polar lows are not available for the given grid cell. The polar-low climatology here describes the occurrences of polar lows in all formative and most mature stages of development (polar-low types 6, 7, 21, and 22 as used in the data sources; see Part 1, Sect. 10). Polar lows in the decaying stage of their life cycles are not included in this climatology. DATA GROUP LOWPC: MEAN AND/OR RELATIVE NUMBER OF CYCLONES FOR JANUARY, JULY, AND THE YEAR FOR THE WORLD BY 5 x 5 DEGREE GRID CELLS AND THE MEAN NUMBER OF HOURS OF CYCLONE OCCURRENCE FOR JANUARY, JULY, AND THE YEAR FOR THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE BY 5 X 5 DEGREE GRID CELLS The names of the ARC/INFO coverage and flat ASCII file are LOWPC.E00 (File 25) and LOWPC.ASC (File 26) respectively. A summary of the format for File 26 follows: 10 READ(UNIT=5,FMT=100) AREA,PERIMETER,LOWPC,LOWPCID,ZONE, 1 LOWNJA,LOWNJL,LOWNAN,LOWSJA,LOWSJL,LOWSAN,LOWS2JA READ(UNIT=5,FMT=101,END=999) LOWS2JL,LOWS2AN,LOWAJA, 1 LOWAJL,LOWAAN,LOWA2JA,LOWA2JL,LOWA2AN,CYCJA,CYCJL, 2 CYCLONE 100 FORMAT(F12.3,F13.3,3I6,7F8.2) 101 FORMAT(11F8.2) The variables in data group LOWPC are listed as they appear in LOWPC.ASC (File 26) in Table 15. Table 15. Variable formats for LOWPC.ASC (File 26) Variable Column Column Variable Variable description name start end type AREA 1 12 Real System variable - area of each grid cell in map units PERIMETER 13 25 Real System variable - perimeter of each grid cell in map units LOWPC 26 31 Integer System variable - internal grid cell identifier LOWPCID 32 37 Integer System variable - external grid cell identifier ZONE 38 43 Integer Data variable - the climate zone to which a given grid cell is assigned (i.e., 1 = tropical, 2 = extratropical) LOWNJA 44 52 Real Data variable - the mean number of cyclone occurrences per January for each grid cell (Northern Hemisphere) LOWNJL 53 61 Real Data variable - the mean number of cyclone occurrences per July for each grid cell (Northern Hemisphere) LOWNAN 62 70 Real Data variable - the mean number of cyclone occurrences per year for each grid cell (Northern Hemisphere) LOWSJA 71 79 Real Data variable - the mean number of cyclone occurrences per January for each grid cell (Southern Hemisphere outside Australian Region) LOWSJL 80 88 Real Data variable - the mean number of cyclone occurrences per July for each grid cell (Southern Hemisphere outside Australian Region) LOWSAN 89 97 Real Data variable - the mean number of cyclone occurrences per year for each grid cell (Southern Hemisphere outside Australian Region) LOWS2JA 98 106 Real Data variable - the mean number of hours of cyclone occurrence per January for each grid cell (Southern Hemisphere outside Australian Region) The following line reads: LOWS2JL 1 8 Real Data variable - the mean number of hours of cyclone occurrence per July for each grid cell (Southern Hemisphere outside Australian Region) LOWS2AN 9 17 Real Data variable - the mean number of hours of cyclone occurrence per year for each grid cell (Southern Hemisphere outside Australian Region) LOWAJA 18 26 Real Data variable - the mean number of cyclone occurrences per January for each grid cell (Australian Region) LOWAJL 27 35 Real Data variable - the mean number of cyclone occurrences per July for each grid cell (Australian Region) LOWAAN 36 44 Real Data variable - the mean number of cyclone occurrences per year for each grid cell (Australian Region) LOWA2JA 45 53 Real Data variable - the mean number of hours of cyclone occurrence per January for each grid cell (Australian Region) LOWA2JL 54 62 Real Data variable - the mean number of hours of cyclone occurrence per July for each grid cell (Australian Region) LOWA2AN 63 71 Real Data variable - the mean number of hours of cyclone occurrence per year for each grid cell (Australian Region) CYCJA 72 80 Real Data variable - statistically standardized data value calculated by subtracting the given data source mean number of cyclone centers present per 5 x 5 degree grid cell per January from the mean number of cyclone centers present in a given 5 x 5 degree grid cell per January and then dividing by the standard deviation of the given data source mean number of cyclone centers present per 5 x 5 degree grid cell per January (i.e., the global distribution of cyclones in January) CYCJL 81 89 Real Data variable - statistically standardized data value calculated by subtracting the given data source mean number of cyclone centers present per 5 x 5 degree grid cell per July from the mean number of cyclone centers present in a given 5 x 5 degree grid cell per July and then dividing by the standard deviation of the given data source mean number of cyclone centers present per 5 x 5 degree grid cell per July (i.e., the global distribution of cyclones in July) CYCLONE 90 98 Real Data variable - statistically standardized data value calculated by subtracting the given data source mean number of cyclone centers present per 5 x 5 degree grid cell per year from the mean number of cyclone centers present in a given 5 x 5 degree grid cell per year and then dividing by the standard deviation of the given data source mean number of cyclone centers present per 5 x 5 degree grid cell per year (i.e., the annual global distribution of cyclones The following flag is added to the data values of data group LOWPC to aid in the data interpretation. 999.00 - Indicates that data for the given data variable are not available for the given grid cell. Data variables CYCJA, CYCJL, and CYCLONE are expressed in deviations from the mean, where the mean and standard deviation for each data source was obtained and used to convert the values in each grid cell into a standardized value. The standardized data values for each 5 x 5 degree grid cell in each data region were then used to form the three global data variables for January, July, and the year (see Appendix A for a full description of the methods used in obtaining the global data variables). Comparison of the number of cyclones and/or cyclonicity data between areas using different data sources should be undertaken with caution. Although data variables CYCJA, CYCJL, and CYCLONE adequately standardize the data sources for most uses, differences in data analysis and presentation in the original data sources cannot be entirely ignored. Two particular areas of caution concerning data source differences are (1) the number of cyclone observations used in obtaining the original cyclone frequencies and (2) the resolution of the isobar analyses used (i.e., 4-hPa, 5-hPa, or 10-hPa). DATA GROUP MONSOON: INDEX OF THE INFLUENCE OF WINDS ON COASTLINES IN THE AFRICAN, ASIAN, AND AUSTRALIAN MONSOON REGIONS BY 1 X 1 DEGREE GRID CELLS The names of the ARC/INFO coverage and flat ASCII file are MONSOON.E00 (File 29) and MONSOON.ASC (File 30) respectively. A summary of the format used for File 30 follows: 10 READ(UNIT=5,FMT=100,END=999) AREA,PERIMETER,MON, 1 MONID,MONSOON 100 FORMAT(2F13.3,2I6,F5.0) The variables in data group MONSOON are listed as they appear in MONSOON.ASC (File 30) in Table 16. Table 16. Variable formats for MONSOON.ASC (File 30) Variable Column Column Variable Variable description name start end type AREA 1 13 Real System variable - area of each grid cell in map units PERIMETER 14 26 Real System variable - perimeter of each grid cell in map units MON 27 32 Integer System variable - internal grid cell identifier MONID 33 38 Integer System variable - external grid cell identifier MONSOON 39 43 Real Data variable - a numeric index of the relative influence of onshore winds on coastlines of monsoon regions for each grid cell The following flag is added to the data values of data group MONSOON to aid in data interpretation. 999 - Indicates that data for the given data variable are not available for the given grid cell. DATA GROUP SEAICE: MEAN ANNUAL SEA-ICE CONCENTRATIONS FOR ALASKAN AND U.S. ATLANTIC COASTAL AREAS BY 1 X 1 DEGREE GRID CELLS The names of the ARC/INFO export file and flat ASCII data file are SEAICE.E00 (File 33), and SEAICE.ASC (File 34) respectively. A summary of the format used for File 34 follows: 10 READ(UNIT=5,FMT=100,END=999) AREA,PERIMETER,SEA, 1 SEAID,ICE 100 FORMAT(2F13.3,2I6,F5.1) The variables in data group SEAICE are listed as they appear in SEAICE.ASC (File 34) in Table 17. Table 17. Variable formats for SEAICE.ASC (File 34) Variable Column Column Variable Variable description name start end type AREA 1 13 Real System variable - area of each grid cell in map units PERIMETER 14 26 Real System variable - perimeter of each grid cell in map units SEA 27 32 Integer System variable - internal grid cell identifier SEAID 33 38 Integer System variable - external grid cell identifier ICE 39 43 Real Data variable - mean annual concentration of sea ice in percent for each grid cell Calculations of sea-ice concentrations are limited to 1 x 1 degree grid cells of latitude-longitude that contain significant U.S. coastlines. Therefore, the flat ASCII file (File 34) of data group SEAICE has only 297 grid cells out of the 64,800 possible that contain real data. Grid cells not containing real data values are flagged with the following data value: 99.0 - Indicates that no data value for sea-ice concentration has been calculated for the given grid cell.