Solar and Meteorological Surface Observational Network CD-ROM

Solar and Meteorological Surface Observational Network is a CD-ROM product available from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). This product is a 3-volume CD-ROM set containing data from selected stations in the United States, Puerto Rico and Guam. The 3 CD-ROMs are divided geographically into regions (eastern, central, and western U.S. -- 1 CD-ROM per region), and contain hourly solar radiation and meteorological data for the period 1961-1990. They encompass 237 National Weather Service (NWS) stations. The dataset includes both observational and modeled data. The 5 solar elements are: extraterrestrial horizontal and extraterrestrial direct normal radiation; global; diffuse; and direct normal radiation. The 16 meteorological elements are: total and opaque sky cover, temperature and dew point, relative humidity, station pressure, wind direction and speed, visibility, ceiling height, present weather, precipitable water, aerosol optical depth, snow depth, days since last snowfall, and hourly precipitation. This data set was developed jointly by NCDC and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Boulder, Colorado.