The data sets in this directory include monthly means of temperature and 
total precipitation for stations in Alaska from the Global Historical 
Climatology Network (GHCN), collected by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and 
prepared for NOAA/CMDL by Jon K. Eischeid, Cooperative Institute for Research 
In Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado.  The world-wide GHCN data 
set is compiled from many different sources from more than 26,000 stations. 
There are data from 43 temperature stations and 39 precipitation stations 
from Alaska included with this data, stretching from the beginning of each 
station record (some stations have data back to the mid 1800's) to the end 
of 1990.

The files alsktmp.txt and alskpcp.txt contain a listing of the stations in 
Alaska that have contributed temperature and precipitation data, respectively. 
These files give the country code for each station (401 - Alaska (U.S.A.), 
the station identification number, the name of each station, the location of 
the station in latitude - longitude coordinates, the station elevation, the 
period of record for the data, the percent data missing in the period of 
record for the station, and a code specifying possible suspect data 
(0 - data is good, 1 - data is suspect, file might contain values that are 
atypical).  Please refer to the GHCN data report referenced below for a 
more detailed description of these document files.

The file alsktmp.dat contains all of the monthly mean temperature data for the 
Arctic.  The data are recorded in tenths of degrees Celsius and each record 
is referenced to its station identification number.  The file ALSKPCP.DAT 
contains all of the total monthly precipitation data for the Arctic.  The data 
are recorded in tenths of millimeters and each record is referenced to its 
station identification number.  All files are in ASCII format.

For further information please refer to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory 
data report on the GCHN:

The Global Historical Climatology Network:  Long-Term Monthly Temperature, 
Precipitation, Sea Level Pressure, and Station Pressure Data.  Oak Ridge 
National Laboratory, Environmental Scicence Division, Publication No. 3912.
ORNL/CDIAC-53.  Order from CDIAC, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P.O. Box 2008,
MS-6335, Oak Ridge, TN, 37831-9984.  Telephone: (615) 574-0390.