Where are climate data archived?
The primary archive for weather data used in climatological and other studies is the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), 151 Patton Avenue, Asheville, North Carolina, 28801. Their web page address is http://www.cdc.noaa.gov. NCDC archives a large fraction of the weather data taken by federal agencies and cooperative observers, with records going back well into the last century. Their daily update is rather impressive, including over 50,000 reports from surface stations, 2,500 rawinsonde balloon launches worldwide, 3,000 communications from ships and thousands more from air craft reports. Weather satellites and radar add gigabytes more data each day. These data can be made available to anyone who is willing to pay the handling charges and service fees imposed by the government. Many other climate-related databases are found at institutes such as the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), in NASA laboratories, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Department of Energy, and numerous national laboratories and university research centers.
NCDC recently moved into new facilities in Asheville. The need for upgraded space is evident when you note that NCDC stores some 320 million pages of paper, 2.5 million microfiche records, 403,000 tape cartridges and magnetic tapes, and satellite images dating back to 1960. The insurance and legal communities are among the largest users of these data, accounting for up to 30 percent of the 143,000 requests for data each year.