The IPCC Data Distribution Centre

DDC Bulletin No. 4, 10th November 1998

This is the fourth in an occasional series of bulletins from the IPCC DDC keeping you informed of progress about the Centre and about new developments relating to the availability of scenario information being handled by this IPCC initiative. You are receiving this email as one of the 467 currently Registered User of the DDC web site (there is a database of users to view at http://ipcc-ddc.cru.uea.ac.uk/table.html). Since the last bulletin in August a number of additions have been made, both to the Green and Yellow Pages. These are summarised below, but first two corrections and an announcement are mentioned.

Corrections:

• The Minimum Temperature files from the CGCM1 (Canadian Climate Centre model) have been very slightly altered owing to an inaccuracy by the CCCma in their conversion of K to deg C. This affects only the TMN and DTR files by 0.15degC.
• The observed 10-year and 30-year mean fields for precipitation have been recalculated owing to a scaling error in earlier versions of the files for January and February. The new files available from the Green Download Data pages are all now expressed in units of (mm/day*10).

Announcement:

The Data Visualisation pages (except the Time Series) on the Green DDC site are temporarily suspended while a revision is made to the site. This should be accessible again within 10 days.

Additional Information:

• Global temperature time series plots for the five GCM experiments on the DDC currently are now available from the Yellow Pages.
• The series of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on the User Support Page of the Green site has been added to. This list of questions and answers about scenarios and about the DDC will be added to in the weeks to come as we handle more enquiries from users. Send any suggestions for FAQs you would like answered to: ipcc.ddc@uea.ac.uk
• Global-mean sea-level calculations for the HadCM2 series of experiments have been added to the Green site GCM information page about HadCM2 (http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/link/HadCM2_changes.html). These calculations allow for thermal expansion and ice-melt.
• The DDC CD-ROM is still in preparation and should be completed before the end of the year. This CD will contain all of the functions and data held on the DDC Green Pages and will contain it's own web browser so that users can view the Pages on their local PC without access to the Internet. We will keep registered users informed of progress.
• You are reminded to read the DDC Data Policy statement on the DDC Blue Home Page. Please read this if you intend using data from the DDC.

Please invite your colleagues who have an interest in this Data Centre to Register and be kept abreast of developments. The IPCC DDC is the primary means by which the IPCC is supporting the use of consistent scenarios in impacts assessments that may be cited in the Third Assessment Report.