First ISCCP Regional Experiment (FIRE) Atlantic Stratocumulus Transition Experiment (ASTEX) Centre Meteorologie Spatiale (CMS) Hourly Solar Irradiance Data

The First ISCCP Regional Experiments have been designed to improve data products and cloud/radiation parameterizations used in general circulation models (GCMs). Specifically, the goals of FIRE are (1) to improve basic understanding of the interaction of physical processes in determining life cycles of cirrus and marine stratocumulus systems and the radiative properties of these clouds during their life cycles and (2) to investigate the interrelationships between the ISCCP data, GCM parameterizations, and higher space and time resolution cloud data.To-date, four intensive field-observation periods were planned and executed: a cirrus IFO (October 13 - November 2, 1986); a marine stratocumulus IFO off the southwestern coast of California (June 29 - July 20, 1987); a second cirrus IFO in southeastern Kansas (November 13 - December 7, 1991); and a second marine stratocumulus IFO in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean (June 1 - June 28, 1992). Each mission combined coordinated satellite, airborne, and surface observations with modeling studies to investigate the cloud properties and physical processes of the cloud systems.These files are calculations of the hourly solar irradiance at the surface, based on observations by the METEOSAT. The file naming convention is: esDDMMYYsxx.fiswhere DDMMYY is the date and xx = slot numberMean time (UT) is obtained from the slot number overthe ASTEX region by the formula: UT = (xx/2) - 0.17These files are: I2 pixels, 376 pixels/row, 326 rows. Each pixel has a spatial resolution of 0.04 degrees.The header of each file claims there are two channels, although the provided documentation states that there is only one channel per file.The units are: flux [tenths of Joule/cm^2]