Mission & Vision

Mission

The mission of the Climate Data Guide is to provide concise and reliable information on the strengths and limitations of the key observational datasets, tools and methods used to evaluate Earth system models and to understand the climate system. In support of this mission, the Guide publishes expert commentaries on the utility of climate data for addressing a variety of questions in climate science. The Guide distributes this information through an open and accessible web interface and related channels (e.g syndication, social media, Google search, etc.).

Vision

The vision of the Climate Data Guide is to be an accessible, equitable, and living repository for the climate community's collective wisdom and expertise on a broad array of climate data sets and their appropriate use in analyses and model evaluation.

Supporting actionable science

Serving over a million visitors from around the world, the Climate Data Guide expands the reach of NCAR's actionable science, and exemplifies NCAR's vision of "science with and for society." The Climate Data Guide's content ranks highly in Google search. The Guide was named an exemplary community resource by the 2012 U.S. National Academies' report, A National Strategy for Advancing Climate Modeling.

To learn more, there is a peer-reviewed overview paper describing the project available.