Table 1 Available environmental datasets for the trajectory annotation service

Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) [37]

Tropical precipitation

NASA http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Regular lat/lon grid

1998– present

50°N–50°S 180°E–180°W

3-hour

0.25°

Unformatted binary

AVHRR land NDVI [38]

Normalized difference vegetation index from the AVHRR (low resolution) sensor

USGS (USA only) http://phenology.cr.usgs.gov/get_data_1km.php NASA (global) http://glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/data/gimms/

Albert’s Equal Area grids

1989–present, 1982–present

CONUS, 90°N–90°S 180°E–180°W

1-week, 2-week

1 km (USA), 8 km (global)

Unformatted binary

NCEP Global Reanalysis 2 [39]

Global weather reanalysis

NOAA http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/gridded/data.ncep.reanalysis2.html

Regular (non-Gaussian) grid

1948–present

90°N–90°S 180°E–180°W

6-hour

2.5° (208 km)

NetCDF

North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) [40]

Regional (North America only) weather reanalysis

NOAA http://www.emc.ncep.noaa.gov/mmb/rreanl/

Lambert Conformal, Conic Grids

1979–present

90°N–1°N 0°–170W°

3-hour

32 km (at 40°N)

GRIB

ECMWF Reanalysis [41]

Global weather reanalysis

ECMWF http://www.ecmwf.int/

Regular grid

1979–present

89.463°N–89.463°S 180°E–180°W

6-hour

0.7°

GRIB

MODIS Land

Earth-surface, reflectivity and vegetation variables

NASA https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/

Geographic/ Sinusoidal grid

2002–2012

90°N–90°S 180°E–180°W

Daily, 8-day, 16-day, monthly

5.6 km (0.05°)

HDF- EOS

MODIS Ocean

Ocean surface, color, and productivity variables

NASA http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Cylindrical Equidistant

4 km, 9 km

HDF- EOS

MODIS Snow

Snow and ice variables

NASA http://modis-snow-ice.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Cylindrical Equidistant

1 Km, 4 Km

HDF- EOS

Ocean productivity [42]

Ocean net primary productivity (NPP) reanalysis

http://www.science.oregonstate.edu/ocean.productivity/

Equidistant Cylindrical projection, lat/lon grid

1997–2009

90°N–90°S 180°E–180°W

8-day, monthly

Grid sizes 1080x2160 (1/6 degree) 2160x4320 (1/12 degree)

HDF

ASTER GDEM

Very high-resolution topography

USGS http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/gdem.asp

Regular grid, (WGS84 ellipsoid)

83°N–83°S 180°E–180°W

1 arc-second

GeoTIFF

SRTM [43]

High resolution topography

NASA http://www.cgiar-csi.org/data/srtm-90m-digital-elevation-database-v4-1

Regular grid, (WGS84 ellipsoid)

60°N–60°S 180°E–180°W

3 arc-second

HGT

GlobCover

Land cover and land-use type

ESA http://dup.esrin.esa.it/prjs/prjs68.php

Plate-Carrée projection (WGS84 ellipsoid)

2009

90°N–65°S 180°E–180°W

20 arc-seconds

HDF

Socioeconomic data (Population Density Grid)

Human geography

http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/gpw/global.jsp

Regular grid (WGS84 ellipsoid)

1990–2010

85°N–58°S 180°E–180°W

5 years

30 arc-second (1km)

ASCII

Ocean Surface Current Reanalysis (OSCAR)

Ocean surface currents

NASA http://www.oscar.noaa.gov/

Regular grid

1993–present

60°N–60°S 180°E–180°W

5-day, monthly

1 degree, 1/3 degree

NetCDF

ETOPO1

Ice surface and bedrock

NASA http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/global.html

Regular grid (WGS84 ellipsoid)

1940–2008

90°N–90°S 180°E–180°W

1 arc-minute

NetCDF

Distance to the Nearest Coast

Distance to the nearest coast

NASA http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/DOCS/DistFromCoast/

Regular grid

90°N–90°S 180°E–180°W

0.04° 0.01°

Text file, GeoTiff

Derived wind variables for flight

Tail-wind support and cross wind [36]; Thermal and orographic uplift [5]

Calculated derived variables, based on ECMWF or NCEP data

Regular grid

1979–present

89.463°N–89.463°S 180°E–180°W

6-hour

0.7°

ASCII

Derived topographic variables

Slope and aspect [25]; Rugosity [44]

Calculated derived variables, based on ASTERGDEM

Regular grid

83°N–83°S 180°E–180°W

1 arc-second

ASCII