It is not necessary to download the yearly files: aoiclim.71_00.daily.YYYY.dat 
(eg, aoiclim.71_00.daily.2004.dat).  

These should actually be links to:

  aoiclim.71_00.daily.365.dat  (for non leap years)
     or
  aoiclim.71_00.daily.366.dat  (for leap years)

If you are downloading more than one or two years of daily climatology 
data, pick up just the two files above and use links to these files.  This will 
save alot of space and download time.

For info on reading the aoiclim files, see:

ftp://ftp.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/wd52yx/sstclim/README

and modify the sample code to read 365 (or 366) daily fields instead 
of the 12 monthly fields it's written for.



Questions?  Contact Diane.Stokes@noaa.gov