Climate Wizard

Access to worldwide climate data and IPCC scenarios in an online mapping system and as GIS data downloads. From the web site: “Climate Wizard enables technical and non-technical audiences alike to access leading climate change information and visualize the impacts anywhere on Earth” – developed by the Nature Conservancy, Univ. of Washington, and Univ. of Southern Mississippi. GIS users – please see data citation requirements on the “About Us” link.

GIS Climate Change Scenarios – NCAR

    From the web site: “This GIS data portal provides access to free global datasets of climate change scenarios generated for the 4th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) by the Community Climate System Model (CCSM). The datasets can be downloaded in a common GIS format (i.e., shapefiles) or text file format”. See also the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – Data Distribution Center – http://www.ipcc-data.org/.

National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) – NCAR GIS Initiative

From the web site: “The Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Strategic Initiative at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is an interdisciplinary effort to foster collaborative science, spatial data interoperability, and knowledge sharing with GIS.” Look at the tutorials link for tutorials about how to import netCDF data (widely used in the atmospheric sciences, into ArcGIS 9.2.

National Climate Data Center (NOAA)

From the web site: “world’s largest archive of weather data” – not all specifically GIS, but some of it can be used in GIS programs. Go to NCDC CLIMAPS site to download ESRI Shape files of North American climate data.

PRISM (Oregon State University)

From the web site: “This OSU PRISM Group web site provides access to the highest-quality spatial climate data sets currently available. These data sets were created using the PRISM climate mapping system, developed by Dr. Christopher Daly, PRISM Group director. PRISM is unique in that it incorporates a spatial climate knowledge base that accounts for rain shadows, temperature inversions, coastal effects, and more in the climate mapping process.”

National Weather Service Data Available in GIS Format – NOAA

National Assessment of Coastal Vulnerability to Sea Level Rise (USGS Woods Hole Field Center)

Includes links to a preliminary GIS data set that attempts to give a national overview of coastal vulnerability to sea level rise, plus a number of reports and regional studies.