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                                                 04/08/2011
                         NCDC ON-LINE INVENTORIES

Following are instructions for obtaining various data
inventories online from NCDC.  Just follow the instructions
below to access any of these inventories.  They are accessible through
our www service: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/surfaceinventories.html,
or through direct ftp connection as follows:

    a) Enter:  open ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov

    b) Login is:  ftp or anonymous

    c) Password is:  your email address

    d) You are now logged onto a UNIX workstation.  Enter
       'help' if you'd like a list of available commands.

    e) To move to the correct subdirectory, enter:
       cd /pub/data/inventories

    f) To get a copy of the file descriptions, enter:
       get README.TXT destination  (destination is your
       output location and name)...e.g.--
       get README.TXT c:README.TXT - copies to hard drive c:
       Note that file names are in all CAPITAL letters.

    g) Then, to get a copy of any of the inventory files, use
       the same procedure, such as--
       get COOP.TXT c:COOP.TXT

    h) To logoff the system when finished, enter:
       bye

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FILE DESCRIPTIONS:

FILE             DESCRIPTION


COOP.TXT         Historical cooperative station index,
                 with extensive station information.
                 Cooperative stations are U.S. stations operated
                 by local observers which generally report
                 max/min temperatures and precipitation.
                 National Weather Service (NWS) data are also
                 included in this dataset.  The data receive
                 extensive automated + manual quality control.

COOP.TXT.Z       COOP.TXT file unix-compressed.

COOP-ACT.TXT     Same as 'COOP.TXT' but only includes stations
                 which are currently active.

COOP-MAP.GIF     GIF image showing location of active U.S. cooperative
                 stations.

COOP-STATE-
CODES.TXT        The 2-digit numbers for each state which correspond
                 to the first 2 digits of the cooperative station
                 numbers.

COUNTRY-LIST.TXT Reference showing country names and the associated
                 station number ranges assigned for each country--
                 see ISH-HISTORY.TXT for further information.



ISH-HISTORY.TXT
                 Global station list sorted by station number, for the 
                 Integrated Surface Data (ISD, formerly ISH), which includes
                 some additional data over/above the Datsav3 database.
                 Shows all active worldwide surface observing stations
                 which report hourly and/or synoptic data.  The
                 'country-list-fips.txt' file provides country-by-country 
                 ID information.

ISH-INVENTORY.TXT
                 Monthly inventory of worldwide surface observations for 
                 the Integrated Surface Data (ISD), which includes
                 some additional data over/above the Datsav3 database.





WBAN.TXT         Historical WBAN index.
                 WBAN's are received here at NCDC for NWS and
                 U.S. military stations.
                 This is an index of these locations--many of
                 which have hourly data in digital form.
                 Additional U.S. hourly stations are shown in
                 the global inventories above.

WBAN.TXT.Z       WBAN.TXT file unix-compressed.

WBAN-MSC.TXT     WBAN-AWSMSC-WMO cross reference--the WBAN index
                 and global index (both mentioned above) cross-
                 referenced with World Meteorological
                 Organization (WMO) numbers.  These are the 3
                 numbering systems used by NCDC for
                 national/international locations.  Cross-reference
                 is based on corresponding call letters.  This file
                 should be updated in the near future.

Notes:  Most files are ASCII text format with a 'TXT' name
extension (e.g., COOP.TXT).  
The files are updated periodically as resources/information allow.
To read any of the files (after downloading), you can use any 
text editor or spreadsheet software.  Of course, Fortran, Perl, Java, or any other
language may be used to access any of the data.

        For further information, please contact our Climate Services Branch
(Phone 828-271-4800, Fax 828-271-4876, Email ncdc.orders@noaa.gov).

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