The data set consists of a southern African subset of the "Global Soil Types, 0.5-Degree Grid (Modified Zobler)" data set. Data files are provided in ASCII GRID format.
A global data set of soil types is available at 0.5-degree latitude by 0.5-degree longitude resolution. There are 106 soil units, based on Zoblers (1986) assessment of the FAO/UNESCO Soil Map of the World. This data set is a conversion of the Zobler 1-degree resolution version to a 0.5-degree resolution. The resolution of the data set was not actually increased. Rather, the 1-degree squares were divided into four 0.5-degree squares with the necessary adjustment of continental boundaries and islands. Documentation about the source data set can be found at http://www.daac.ornl.gov/SOILS/guides/ZoblerSoilDerived1.html.
Image of southern African soil types available at 0.5-degree by 0.5-degree resolution. Only southern African data are included in this data set. Additional documentation from Zoblers assessment of FAO soil units is available from the NASA Center for Scientific Information.
Cite this data set as follows (citation revised on February 10, 2003):
Post, W. M., and L. Zobler. 2002. SAFARI 2000 Soil Types, 0.5-Deg Grid (Modified Zobler). Data set. Available on-line [http://www.daac.ornl.gov] from Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, U.S.A. doi:10.3334/ORNLDAAC/649.
Post, W. M. 2000. Global Soil Types by 0.5-Degree Grid (Modified Zobler). Data set. Available on-line [http://www.daac.ornl.gov] from Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, U.S.A.
Post, W. M., A. W. King, and S. D. Wullschleger 1997. Historical variations in terrestrial biospheric carbon storage. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 11:99-109.
Post, W. M., King, A. W., and S. D. Wullschleger 1996. Soil organic matter models and global estimates of soil organic carbon. pp. 201-222. In P. Smith, J. Smith, and D. Powlson (eds.), Evaluation of Soil Organic Matter Models Using Existing Long-Term Datasets, Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Webb, R. S., C. E. Rosenzweig, and E. R. Levine. 1993. Specifying land surface characteristics in general circulation models: Soil profile data set and derived water-holding capacities. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 7:97-108.
Zobler, L. 1986. A world soil file for global climate modeling. NASA Technical Memorandum 87802.
For information on preparation of this subset, parameter/variable names, variable description/definition, units of measurement, and data file format see the companion file http://daac.ornl.gov/daacdata/safari2k/soils/Zobler_Soil/comp/zobler_readme.pdf.
June 3, 2002 (citation revised on February 10, 2003)
June 3, 2002
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