Global Brightness Temperature imagery from the Cloud Archive User Service (CLAUS) project. This project produced a long time-series of global thermal infra-red imagery of the Earth using data from operational meteorological satellites, which was used in validating atmospheric General Circulation Models.

The CLAUS archive currently spans the period 1st July

1983 - 30th June 2009. Responsibility for maintaining and updating the

CLAUS archive resides with the Environmental Systems Science Centre (ESSC).

The source data used in CLAUS are the level B3 (reduced resolution) 10 micron radiances from operational meteorological satellites participating in the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Programme (ISCCP) and were obtained from the NASA Langley Atmospheric Sciences Data Center (LASDC).

During the CLAUS project the B3 data were processed to create a uniform latitude-longitude grid (or image) of Brightness Temperature (BT) values at a spatial resolution of 0.5 by 0.5 degrees and temporal resolution of three hours. Information at the grid point level about the satellites used in

generating each BT image, and the type of interpolation applied, was held in two supplementary quality files.

The B3 data were also rigorously quality controlled to remove residual noise and navigation/calibration errors that were noticed in the original processing. The 0.5 degree resolution data were updated and

supplemented by a new product at one-third degree spatial resolution for use in process studies. These higher resolution data are also being used to create monthly animations for educational purposes.