Israeli Atmospheric and Climatic Data Center IACDC Tel Aviv University

Overview

The Israeli Atmospheric and Climatic Data Center (IACDC) is a digital data center hosted by the Department of Geophysics at the School of Earth Sciences at Tel Aviv University. Established in December 2015 with funding from Israel's Ministry of Science and Technology, IACDC was created to facilitate access to atmospheric and climate datasets for the Israeli and international research communities. It functions as a NASA data node in Israel and archives data using the Obs4MIPS and CMIP5 standardized archiving protocols.

History and Founding

The IACDC was launched under the leadership of Professors Pinhas Alpert and Nili Harnik of TAU's Department of Geophysics, with Maayan Rothstein serving as director. It was established in response to the growing complexity and volume of climate and atmospheric data sources, and the need for Israeli researchers to access global datasets through a standardized, locally managed interface.

Collections and Data Holdings

The IACDC archives a wide range of atmospheric and climatic datasets including global climate model output, reanalysis products (such as NASA's MERRA-2), satellite data, and station measurements. It curates datasets on atmospheric aerosols, weather systems, and sea-salt concentrations. Products generated in-house include dust and sea-salt aerosol forecasts and the IACDC cyclones and cyclone-tracks database, covering all cyclones identified between 1980 and 2016. Special emphasis is placed on data unique to Israel, including output from regional models, historical reports, and Israel Meteorological Service station measurements.

Access

Datasets are downloadable through the IACDC website at iacdc.tau.ac.il. For data not yet archived locally, researchers can submit order forms to have IACDC staff retrieve and stage the data. Access is free of charge.