The volume "Observed Global Climate" comprises a set of climate budget quantities, relevant for atmosphere and ocean (the "climate fluids") as well as for land and ice (the "climate solids"). Examples for budget quantities are temperature, salinity, wind, rain, radiation. They are displayed in standardised form for all climate subsystems.

The data are arranged around the budget principle which is basic for the entire climate system. The book demonstrates that budgeting is not only a useful principle but also that "budget-thinking" has practically become state of the art in modern quantitative climatology. Examples include the global water budget (consistency of the components better than 10%) and the global energy budget (consistency better than 5%).

The data are based on direct observations but have been subject to data assimilation. They are presented in gridded form and in form of maps and sections. The DVD carries the data, the original articles, figures in original colours, plus additional material like animations of the most important climate parameters and selected non-standard quantities. The gridded fields can be loaded by the user from the DVD into the personal computer.

Standard reference book with selected and easily retrievable data from the fields of physics and chemistry collected by acknowledged international scientists Also available online in www.springerLink.com http://www.landolt-boernstein.com Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Inhalt
Executive summary.- Quantifying global climate systems.- The processing of observational data and its implication for climate analysis.- Data management.- Radiation budget for the climate system.- Water vapor in the atmosphere.- Clouds.- Global chemistry.- Global aerosols.- Circulation of the global atmosphere.- Energy budget at the earth's surface.- Global precipitation.- Terrestrial carbon and water fluxes.- Flow and balance of the polar ice sheets.- Global ocean and sea ice.- Climate variations.- Climate predictability.- Global climate maps 1991-1995.