                           CONTENTS OF THIS DIRECTORY
                           ==========================
                                
        This directory contains data files relating to daily time series of
weather states for the Bay of Biscay and Iberian Peninsula. The data are from 
EU COST Action 733 (main web page at http://cost733.met.no/, although the data
files and documentation are from http://cost733.geo.uni-augsburg.de/cost733wiki). 
The files are as follows:

        - cost733domains01.*    Maps showing the European regions considered
                                in COST Action 733. The region of interest
                                here is region D09 "Iberia / W Med", 
                                formally defined as 31-48N and 17W-9E.
        
        - cost733class_userguide.pdf    User guide for the COST733 software,
                                giving description of the interpretations
                                for the different classes.

        - GWT09_YR_S01_SP.zip   Archive containing daily time series of
                                weather states for all European regions,
                                September 1957-August 2002, obtained using 
                                the GWT (GrossWetterTypes) methodology 
                                configured to produce an 8-state classification 
                                based on MSLP fields only over the relevant 
                                region. The data for region D09 are in file
                                GWT08_YR_S01_SP_D09.txt, and summary statistics 
                                are in the corresponding .stat file. NB most of 
                                the "coarse" COST classifications have 9 
                                states, but this one has only 8.
                          
        - GWT*.png              Maps of MSLP fields for each of the 8 states -
                                again, downloaded directly from the COST733
                                web site. 

The COST Action 733 produced an intercomparison of a huge variety of different
classification algorithms. The selection here of the GWT algorithm based on
MSLP fields only is based on advice from Radan Huth (personal communication). 
The rationale is that the algorithm provides weather states that have some 
kind of synoptic interpretation; and that using MSLP only helps to be clear
about what the interpretation *is*. Moreover, the YR version of the 
classification (as opposed to some of the seasonally-dependent classifications
carried out within COST733) ensures that the interpretation of the states is
the same throughout the year. The GWT classification is based on correlations
between each day's MSLP field and "reference" fields, and simply reflects
the rough direction of the flow as follows: 1 N, 2 NE, 3 E, 4 SE, 5 S, 6 SW, 
7 W, 8 NW.


