This FTP directory contains GPCP pentad (5-Day) precipitation analysis dataset Files and their discription * gpcp_pen_v2.2.sgi.yyyy Where 'yyyy' is a 4-digital integer indicating the corresponding year (e.g. 1979 for the data file of the year 1979). Each yearly file consists of 73 fields of pentad precipitation over the globe. Each global field is an array of 144 x 72 4-byte real numbers in big_endian byte order. Starting from (1.25E; 88.75S), the global array goes from west to east and then from south to north in 2.5 degree latitude/longitude increment. The pentad precipitation analysis values are output in units of mm/day with -999.0 indicating missing. Here is a sample Fortran 77 program to read the pentad data set for 1979: c program : sample.f c objective : sample program to read the pentad file for 1979 dimension rain (144,72) c open (unit=10, # file='gpcp_pen_v2.2.sgi.1979', # access='direct',recl=144*72) do 2001 kk = 1, 73 read (10,rec=kk) rain write (6,2951) kk,rain (72,36) 2001 continue 2951 format (i8,f8.2) c stop end Any inquiries, contact the data set creator: Dr. Pingping Xie Climate Prediction Center 5830 University Research Court College Park, MD 20740 Tel: (301)683-3388 Fax: (301)763-8125 E-mail: Pingping.Xie@noaa.gov