ASCII Grid Descriptive Information

Overview

The data are provided in Arc/InfoTM ASCII (plain text) format with appropriate header. The data are space delimited and the resolution of the data may vary from 0.025 x 0.025 degrees (about 2.5 km) to 2.5 x 2.5 degrees (about 250 km).

Header format

The ASCII (plain text) file has a data format as follows:

ncols

the number of columns in the data

nrows

the number of rows in the data

xllcorner

the longitude of the western boundary of the data

yllcorner

the latitude of the southern boundary of the data

cellsize

the resolution or grid-point spacing of the data in degrees

NODATA_value

can be effectively ignored for this data

row 1

 

row 2

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

row n

 

Please note, some of the header files may specify a grid centre rather grid corner, whereby:

xllcenter

the longitude of the centre of the western-most grid cells

yllcenter

the latitude of the centre of the southern-most grid cells

The data are in row-major order - written row by row (west to east) starting at the northern-most row
(row 1). This means that the first data value of row 1 is the northwestern-most grid point, and the last
value of row 1 is the northeastern-most grid point. The ASCII files can also include additional textual
information appended to the bottom of the file (after the last row of data).

More information about the gridded data, including the associated metadata files, is available at:
http://www2.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/climatology/gridded-data-info/gridded_datasets_summary.shtml

Copyright & contact information

Please note that the copyright for any data supplied by the Bureau of Meteorology is held in the
Commonwealth of Australia and the purchaser shall give acknowledgement of the source in reference to the data. Apart from dealings under the Copyright Act 1968, the purchaser shall not reproduce (electronically or otherwise), modify or supply (by sale or otherwise) these data without written permission from the supplier.
Enquiries should be made in the first instance to the address shown below.

National Climate Centre, Bureau of Meteorology
GPO Box 1289, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia
Email : webclim@bom.gov.au Phone: 03 9669 4082 Fax: 03 9669 4515


Page updated: 4 October 2011