News and Updates HOAPS-3
| 2007-06-05 |
| 2007-05-11 |
| 2007-04-24 |
HOAPS-3 is finally available in the CERA database system:
CERA: HOAPS-G monthly
Pentad and twice daily data are currently transfered to the CERA database and will be available soon.
CERA: HOAPS-G monthly
Pentad and twice daily data are currently transfered to the CERA database and will be available soon.
| 2006-10-16 |
A new version of the HOAPS dataset - HOAPS-3 - is currently in preparation. It will contain a completely reprocessed time-series, now ranging from 07/1987 to 12/2005. Key features of the update will be a new precipitation algorithm, the NODC/RSMAS Pathfinder V5 SST dataset, a new procedure to synthezise failed 85Ghz channels on DMSP F08, and a new, twice daily gridded data-product, called HOAPS-C (composite).
News and Updates HOAPS-II
| 2004-07-02 |
The pentad (5-day) means of HOAPS-G are available via the CERA
database system.
| 2004-04-05 |
The Documentation and Images sections are updated for HOAPS-II.
| 2004-03-12 |
The 2nd version of the HOAPS dataset is released. The datafiles are distributed in the netCDF file format via the
CERA (Climate and Environmental Data Retrieval and Archive)
database system. Up to now only the monthly mean fields are available, but pentade and climatological means will be added
as soon as possible. If you have any problems using the data please send an email to .
HOAPS1 data are no longer available and supported.
News and Updates HOAPS1
| 2003-11-24 |
Relaunch of our website.
| 2003-11-24 |
The 2nd version of the HOAPS dataset is almost finished. The official release of HOAPS-II is now planned for the end of 2003.
We will post the final release announcement on this news page and also send it out to our registered users.
If you want to become a registered user, please write an email to .
If you want to become a registered user, please write an email to .
| 2002-01 |
After offering public access to the HOAPS data base, several groups (besides our own) have used these data for various climatological studies and intercomparisons. In the meanwhile, some accuracy issues and problems with the data set have been brought to our attention:
-
Biases between data from different satellites are sometimes recognisable, when analysed time series contain the switching of the HOAPS data base to a follow on satellite.
The HOAPS database contains data of three different SSM/I satellite platforms to cover the whole time series between July 1987 to December 1998. While these satellite instruments overlap to some extent in time, the HOAPS data base relies presently only on the data of one satellite at any time. The satellite F08 covers the time period from July 1987 to December 1990, F10 ranges from January 1991 to December 1991 and F11 continues the database from January 1992 to December 1998. This is revealed by small but in several parameters recognisable shifts of average values from December 1990 (F08) to January 1991 (F10) and from December 1991 (F10) and January 1992 (F11). Data from F08 and F11 compare quite well whereas F10 tends to show a bias as compared to the two others. Further work on the HOAPS database includes an intercalibration of all used SSM/I platforms and will lead to an enhanced product in the next version of HOAPS.
-
In addition, the well known failure of the 85GHz channel on F08 during 1989 and 1990 results in fairly large biases of the rain and the net radiative flux products during this period.
The failure of the 85 GHz channel on the F08 satellite platform between January 1989 and December 1990 required to use an alternate algorithm for rain and net radiative flux that has been published by Bauer and Schlüssel, 1993. This special algorithm neglects the missing 85 GHz information by attaching more importance to the 37 GHz data. Based on the published results it was assumed that the bias between the normal and the special algorithm is negligible. Further studies for the year 1998 show that in case of the precipitation a global positive bias of about 1 mm/d occurs in the special algorithm. A similar problem arises for the longwave net flux where also a special adopted algorithm was used. Also the freshwater flux is influenced during that period. This leads to the conclusion that the parameters precipitation, freshwater flux and longwave net flux in the HOAPS database within the time period January 1989 to December 1990 are fairly biased and should be used with care. Possible corrections are presently studied and will be included in the next version of HOAPS.
- The most homogeneous period of the whole HOAPS time series is found for the years 1992 to 1998.
-
Incorrect filenames for daily data products of precipitation, evaporation and latent heat flux.
The daily data products of precipitation, evaporation and the latent heat flux are stored in the database separately for ascending and descending nodes of the satellite orbits. There, the extension "d" should contain data for descending nodes and extension "a" those for ascending nodes. While this is correct for the data of the F08 instrument all F10 and F11 daily mean files containing the extension "d" are, however, ascending orbits, and all "a" files contain descending the data from descending orbits.
| 2000-11 |
A comprehensive description of the HOAPS data set is now available:
Grassl H., V. Jost, R. Kumar, J. Schulz, P. Bauer, P. Schluessel, 2000: The Hamburg Ocean-Atmosphere Parameteres and Fluxes
from Satellite Data (HOAPS): A Climatological Atlas of Satellite-Derived Air-Sea-Interaction Parameters over the Oceans. Report No. 312, ISSN 0937-1060, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg
You can download a pdf version (46 MByte) or request a printed version of the HOAPS-Atlas including a CD via Email: .