date: Mon Apr 18 17:00:57 2005
from: Phil Jones <p.jones@uea.ac.uk>
subject: Fwd: News about GPCC
to: trenbert@ucar.edu

    Kevin,
        Sent to all our LAs and Aiguo Dai, but foolishly added the h to yours as
    I typed your email in rather than copying and pasting !
    Cheers
    Phil
    Dear All,
        I've been slowly reading through the comments. I noted some on our use of precip
    datasets, particularly one by Aiguo Dai and the GPCC. It is true that they don't
    make their precip data sources available, but they have signed agreements to not
    pass the original data onto others.
       They have recently released several versions of their gridded datasets, which we should
    probably use in section 3.3 in some way. It is easiest to download directly from
    [1]http://gpcc.dwd.de and look for VASClimO.
       At least from 1951 this is likely the best source of land-based precip data to use.
    I say best only in the sense that it uses more stations than any others.
    Cheers
    Phil

     From: Rudolf Bruno <Bruno.Rudolf@dwd.de>
     To: 'Hans Teunissen' <HTeunissen@wmo.int>, m.manton@bom.gov.au,
             Makoto Suzuki <suzuki@eorc.jaxa.jp>, parkin@essic.umd.edu,
             Johannes Schmetz <schmetz@eumetsat.de>,
             Raino Heino <raino.heino@fmi.fi>,
             Raphael Okoola <okoola@lion.meteo.go.ke>,
             David Parker <deparker@meto.gov.uk>,
             Kazutoshi Onogi <konogi@naps.kishou.go.jp>,
             Ed Harrison <d.e.harrison@noaa.gov>,
             Mitch Goldberg <mitch.goldberg@noaa.gov>, Thomas.C.Peterson@noaa.gov,
             p.jones@uea.ac.uk, Alan Thomas <AThomas@wmo.int>,
             Stephan Bojinski <SBojinski@wmo.int>
     Subject: News about GPCC
     Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 13:22:12 +0100
     X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2653.19)
     X-UEA-MailScanner-Information: Please contact the ISP for more information
     X-UEA-MailScanner: Found to be clean
     Dear colleagues, dear friends
     I'm very glad to inform you about some outstanding news:
     1) New Visualizer and Download ULRs:
     [2]http://orias.dwd.de/GPCC/GPCC_Visualizer
     [3]ftp://ftp.dwd.de/pub/data/gpcc/download.html
     The Visualizer has been re-designed and tranfered to a
     new platform. The tool is much faster now.
     Attention:
     The old ULR has been switched off. So change your bookmarks!
     All links to the old one will not work anymore.
     You can still access the Visualizer via GPCC's Website
     alias address [4]http://gpcc.dwd.de
     2) Two new analysis products are available from the GPCC now:
     - a new 50-year Precipitation Climatology 1951-2000
         optimized for homogeneity in time
     - Version 3 of the Full Data Product 1951-2004
        optimized for best spatial coverage
     The first version of our climatological analyses is based
     on (mostly) complete and homogeneous time-series from observations
     at 9343 selected stations. It provides precipitation totals and the
     interpolation
     error (jackknife) for the 600 individual months (1951-2000).
     The gridded data (0.5 degree), format descripition and an introduction (pdf)
     is accessible via GPCC's Website [5]http://gpcc.dwd.de
     Go from there to the side menu item "VASClimO".
     Version 3 of the Full Data Product 1951-2004 includes the maximum number
     of stations for each individual month. The best covered period is from 1986
     to
     1990 (with about 40,000 stations). The number of stations gradually
     decreases
     after 1991 douwn to the basis of our near real-time Monitoring Product.
     Before 1986 the number of stations is between 10,000 and 15,000 as the
     attached figure illustrades.
     3) Change of GPCC's affiliation within the DWD organisation
     The full GPCC has moved from the department for Climatology
     to the department for Hydrometeorology. That will not change
     GPCC's activities.
     For my person: For the next time I have to cover 2 jobs, the lead
     of the GPCC as well as of another division within this department.
     So, be patient with me, if I will not react immediately.
     Looking forward to a further good cooperation.
     With best regards,
     Bruno Rudolf
     ------------------------------------------
     Dr. Bruno Rudolf
     Global Precipitation Climatology Centre
     c/o Deutscher Wetterdienst
     P.O. Box 10 04 65
     63004 Offenbach am Main
     Germany
     Office: Kaiserleistr. 44, Room 214
     Tel.:   +49 - 69 - 8062 2765
     Fax:    +49 - 69 - 8062 3759
     email:  bruno.rudolf@dwd.de
     Web:    [6]http://gpcc.dwd.de
     ------------------------------------------

   Prof. Phil Jones
   Climatic Research Unit        Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090
   School of Environmental Sciences    Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784
   University of East Anglia
   Norwich                          Email    p.jones@uea.ac.uk
   NR4 7TJ
   UK
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

