SPECS will undertake research and dissemination activities to deliver a new generation of European climate forecast systems, with improved forecast quality and efficient regionalisation tools to produce reliable, local climate information over land at seasonal-to-decadal time scales, and provide an enhanced communication protocol and services to satisfy the climate information needs of a wide range of public and private stakeholders. A core set of common experiments has been defined, to which most forecast systems will contribute. Another set of coordinated experiments, tier 1, includes the experiments that one or more forecast systems are planning to run. A standard seasonal experimental set up will consist of ten-member ensembles, with two start dates per year (first of May and November) over the 1981-2012 period and seven-month forecast length. The standard decadal experimental set up consists in five-member ensembles, starting on the first of November (or some time close to that date) of the years 1960, 1963, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1973, 1975, 1978, 1980, 1983, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2013, with a five-year forecast length. A description of the main experiments, with the minimum contribution in terms of start dates, forecast length and ensemble size follows: 1 - Assessment of the impact of soil-moisture initial conditions (seasonal): contributing EC-Earth, IFS/NEMO (ECMWF), CNRM-CM5 (MeteoF), UM, MPI-ESM (MPG); 2 - Assessment of the impact of sea-ice initialization (interannual); contributing EC-Earth (IC3), IPSL-CM5, CNRM-CM5 (MeteoF), UM, MPI-ESM (MPG) 3 - Assessment of impact of increased horizontal resolution (seasonal and decadal); contributing CNRM-CM5 (CERFACS, decadal; MeteoF, seasonal), EC-Earth (IC3, seasonal; KNMI and SMHI, decadal), MPI-ESM (MPG, seasonal and decadal), IPSL-CM5 (decadal), UM (seasonal and decadal); 4 - Assessment of impact of an improved stratosphere (seasonal and decadal) including interannually-varying ozone; contributing EC-Earth (KNMI seasonal with ozone; SMHI decadal), IFS/NEMO (ECMWF, seasonal), CNRM-CM5 (MeteoF, seasonal), UM (seasonal, decadal); 5 - Assessment of impact of additional start dates (decadal); contributing EC-Earth (KNMI, SMHI), MPI-ESM (MPG), IPSL-CM5. SPECS research has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under SPECS project (grant agreement n° 308378).

Data from the Instituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia INGV-SXG simulations

Tropospheric ORganic CHemistry Experiment (TORCH) was a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Polluted Troposphere Research Programme project (Round 1 - NER/T/S/2002/00145. Duration 2002 - 2005) led by A. Lewis, University of York. TORCH 1 took place in July and August 2003 at Writtle College, near Chelmsford, Essex. This dataset contains ECMWF trajectories

Data from the operational NWP (Numerical Weather Prediction) output from the Variable resolution UK (UKV) part of the Met Office Unified Model. This latest configuration of the UM model has a high resolution inner domain (1.5 km grid boxes) over the area of forecast interest, separated from a coarser grid (4 km) near the boundaries by a variable resolution transition zone. This variable resolution approach allows the boundaries to be moved further away from the region of interest, reducing unwanted boundary effects on the forecasts. The UKV model is kept close to observations using 3D-Var data assimilation every 3 hours. This archive is currently being populated at the BADC.

DESIRE (Dynamics of the Earth System and the Ice-Core Record) was part of QUEST (Quantifying and Understanding the Earth System) Theme 2. This dataset contains measurements of sea temperature, salinity and elevation from the MITgcm (MIT General Circulation Model) model, as part of the Work Package 2.3. These experiments were conducted to investigate the role of changing the vertical tracer diffusivity on Drake Passage Transport (DPT) and the meridional overturning circulation (MOC).

5 km resolution rain rate data from Met Office's Wardon Hill C-band rain radar, Dorset, England as part of the NIMROD, very short range forecasting system used by the Met Office. 5 km rain rate data are available from 2006 until present. Radar images from the C-band (5.3 cm wavelength) radar are received by the Nimrod system 5 minute intervals respectively. Please note that this radar is operated for research purposes only and thus subject to changes in operation and data are subject to interruptions. Data from the Cobbacombe Cross, Dean Hill or Jersey radars provide coverage for the same area covered by the Wardon Hill radar.

Global three-hourly cloud products as produced for the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. The data on are the ISCCP Stage D2 data (ISCCP-D2), at 280 km spatial resolution. There are 202 variables contained within the dataset, which is at three-hourly temporal resolution. The data available at the time of publication of this dataset record in this archive have been obtained from the NASA Atmospheric Data Center (ASDC) and begin in July 1983 and extend to June 2006. A fuller dataset is available directly from ASDC - see link on this record. The data are from a number of radiometers deployed on NOAA, GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite), METEOSAT, GMS and INSAT satellites operational during this period. This dataset is public. The data periods for the various satellite instruments used within this generation of this dataset are given below: Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) versions 1,2 and 3: - AVHRR on NOAA-7: 01/07/1983 to 31/01/1985 - AVHRR on NOAA-8: 01/10/1983 to 24/06/1984 - AVHRR on NOAA-9: 01/02/1985 to 08/11/1988 - AVHRR on NOAA-10: 17/11/1986 to 30/08/1991 - AVHRR on NOAA-11: 30/06/1997 to 18/10/1998 - AVHRR/2 on NOAA-12: 01/09/1991 to 31/12/1998 - AVHRR/2 on NOAA-14: 01/02/1995 to 30/09/2001 - AVHRR/3 on NOAA-15: 01/01/1999 to 31/07/2000 - AVHRR/3 on NOAA-16: 01/10/2001 to 30/06/2005 - AVHRR/3 on NOAA-17: 01/07/2002 to 30/06/2005 Very High Resolution Radiometer (VHRR): - VHRR data on INSAT-1 series (INSAT-1A to 1D): 01/04/1988 to 31/03/1989 GOES-Imager: - GOES-Imager data on GOES-10: 01/08/1998 to 30/06/2005 - GOES-Imager data on GOES-12: 01/04/2003 to 30/06/2005 Multispectral Imaging Radiometer (MIR): - MIR data on METEOSAT-2: 01/07/1983 to 11/08/1988 - MIR data on METEOSAT-3: 11/08/1988 to 25/01/1991 - MIR data on METEOSAT-4 : 19/06/1989 to 30/06/1991 METEOSAT Visible and IR Imager (MVIRI): - MVIRI data on METEOSAT-5: 01/02/1994 to 30/06/2005 - MVIRI data on METEOSAT-6: 01/03/1997 to 31/05/1998 Visible and Infrared Spin-Scan Radiometer (VISSR) data: - VISSR data on GMS-1: 21/01/1984 to 30/06/1984 - VISSR data on GMS-2: 01/07/1983 to 27/091984 - VISSR data on GMS-3: 27/09/1984 to 04/12/1989 - VISSR data on GMS-4: 04/12/1989 to 30/06/1991 - VISSR data on GMS-5: 01/06/1995 to 30/04/2003 - VISSR data on GOES-5: 01/07/1983 to 30/07/1984 - VISSR data on GOES-6: 01/07/1983 to 21/01/1989 - VISSR data on GOES-7: 26/04/1987 to 30/06/1991 - VISSR data on GOES-8: 01/05/1995 to 31/03/2003 - VISSR data on GOES-9: 01/01/1996 to 30/06/2005 For further information about the satellites and their instruments please see the linked documentation pages.

This dataset contains scan data from the National Centre for Atmospheric Science's (NCAS) mobile X-band radar collected at the Davidstow Airfield, Cornwall, between June and August 2013 as part of the MICROphysicS of COnvective PrEcipitation (MICROSCOPE) project. The X-band radar is operated as part of the NCAS Atmospheric Measurement Facility's (AMF).

The European Arctic Stratospheric Ozone Experiment is a European Commission (EC) measurement campaign undertaken in the Northern Hemisphere winter of 1991-92 to study ozone chemistry and dynamics. This dataset contains ozone measurements.

Tropospheric ORganic CHemistry Experiment (TORCH) was a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Polluted Troposphere Research Programme project (Round 1 - NER/T/S/2002/00145. Duration 2002 - 2005) led by A. Lewis, University of York. TORCH 1 took place in July and August 2003 at Writtle College, near Chelmsford, Essex. This dataset contains peroxide measurements from a peroxide analyser.