COSPAR International Reference Atmosphere (CIRA-86): Global Climatology of Atmospheric Parameters

The COSPAR International Reference Atmosphere (CIRA) provides empirical models of atmospheric temperatures and densities as recommended by the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR). A global climatology of atmospheric temperature, zonal velocity and geopotential height derived from a combination of satellite, radiosonde and ground-based measurements. The reference atmosphere extends from pole to pole and 0-120 km. The majority of the data are on a 5 degree latitude grid and approximately 2 km vertical resolution. This dataset is public.



Since the early sixties, several different editions of CIRA have been published. The CIRA Working Group meets biannually during the COSPAR general assemblies. In the thermosphere (above about 100 km) CIRA-86 is identical with the MSIS model, which is available from NSSDC (MI-91E).



The lower part (0-120 km) of CIRA-86 consists of tables of the monthly mean values of temperature and zonal wind with almost global coverage (80°N - 80°S). Two files were compiled by Fleming et al. (1988), one in pressure coordinates including also the geopotential heights, and one in height coordinates including also the pressure values. These tables were generated from several global data compilations including ground-based and satellite (Nimbus 5,6,7) measurements (see Oort (1983) and Labitzke et al. (1985)). The lower part was merged with MSIS-86 at 120 km altitude. In general, hydrostatic and thermal wind balance are maintained at all levels. The model accurately reproduces most of the characteristic features of the atmosphere such as the equatorial wind and the general structure of the tropopause, stratopause, and mesopause.

Simple

Date (Publication)
2006-12-10T03:04:31
Date (Creation)
2006-12-10T03:04:31
Citation identifier
https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/4996e5b2f53ce0b1f2072adadaeda262
Citation identifier
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC) / 4996e5b2f53ce0b1f2072adadaeda262
Point of contact
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

Committee on Space Research (COSPAR)

unknown

 		Author

NASA National Space Science Data Center

unknown

 		Author

NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)

badc@rl.ac.uk

Custodian

NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)

badc@rl.ac.uk

Distributor

NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)

badc@rl.ac.uk

pointofContact

NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)

badc@rl.ac.uk

Publisher
Maintenance and update frequency
Unknown
Update scope
Series
Keywords

  • COSPAR

  • CIRA

  • reference atmosphere

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

  • atmospheric conditions
Access constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints
Please contact the data centre for assistance on accessing data from this dataset collection.
Use constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints
Under the following licence http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/, appropriate use of these data may fall under any use. This message is intended as guidance, always read the full licence. When using these data you must cite them correctly using the citation given on the CEDA Data Catalogue record.
Spatial representation type
Grid
Language
English
Topic category
  • Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere
N
S
E
W
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Begin date
1963-01-01T00:00:00
End date
1973-12-31T00:00:00
Unique resource identifier
WGS 84
Distribution format
Name Version

Contact data centre for format details.
Distributor contact
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)

badc@rl.ac.uk

Distributor
OnLine resource
Protocol Linkage Name
https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/4996e5b2f53ce0b1f2072adadaeda262

CEDA Data Catalogue Page
OnLine resource
Protocol Linkage Name
https://artefacts.ceda.ac.uk/badc_datadocs/cira/ciralogo.gif

CIRA Logo
OnLine resource
Protocol Linkage Name
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/space/model/atmos/cospar1.html

More CIRA data and software are available via the NDSC website
OnLine resource
Protocol Linkage Name
https://artefacts.ceda.ac.uk/badc_datadocs/cira/references.html

BADC Doc: CIRA List of References
OnLine resource
Protocol Linkage Name
http://data.ceda.ac.uk/badc/cira/doc/nssdc_help.tx

CIRA-86 documentation file produced by the National Space Science Data Center (NDSSC)
Hierarchy level
Series

Conformance result

Title

Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

Date (Publication)
2010-12-08
Statement

Please see data lineage statements for each dataset within this collection for data lineage details.

Metadata

File identifier
4996e5b2f53ce0b1f2072adadaeda262 XML
Metadata language
English
Character set
UTF8
Hierarchy level
Series
Hierarchy level name

series
Date stamp
2026-03-15T03:27:38
Metadata standard name
UK GEMINI
Metadata standard version

2.3
Metadata author
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)

badc@rl.ac.uk

Point of contact
 
 

Overviews

Spatial extent

thumbnail

Keywords

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

atmospheric conditions


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