IBTrACS (International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship) provides global tropical cyclone best track data in a centralized location to aid our understanding of the distribution, frequency, and intensity of tropical cyclones worldwide. The World Meteorological Organization Tropical Cyclone Programme has endorsed IBTrACS as an official archiving and distribution resource for tropical cyclone best track data. The data are available in many formats. The IBTrACS-WMO version of the data set uses data from the WMO-sanctioned RSMC/TCWC in each basin.
Key Strengths:
- Consolidates global tropical cyclone data at a central location.
- Available in a single file or subsets.
- This is the most complete global set of historical tropical cyclones available. It includes data from 12 different agencies or historical databases
Key Limitations:
- Changing operational procedures and observing systems have led to significant heterogeneities in the best track record.
- Storms may have conflicting data from multiple sources.
- WMO sanction North Indian Ocean data only goes back to 1990 at this time (2/2012).
Expert User Guidance
IBTrACS-ALL has data from over a dozen different sources that sometimes give 4 or more answers for the same storm. That's good for someone who is interested in the problems between agencies, but it confuses a lot of users. The WMO dataset just uses data from the WMO-sanctioned RSMC/TCWC in each basin, so it's one answer per storm. Carl Schreck, CICS-NC, 10 Feb 2012
Data Time Period Extended?
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Suggested Data Citation
Please reference Knapp et al 2010 when using IBTrACS data in any publication.
Knapp, K. R., M. C. Kruk, D. H. Levinson, H. J. Diamond, and C. J. Neumann, 2010:
The International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS): Unifying tropical cyclone best track data.
Bulletin of the American Meteor. Society, 91, 363-376. doi:10.1175/2009BAMS2755.1
Data Access: Please Cite data sources, following the data providers' instructions.
- Knapp, K. R., M. C. Kruk, D. H. Levinson, H. J. Diamond, and C. J. Neumann, 2010: The International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS): Unifying tropical cyclone best track data.
- Levinson, D. H., H. J. Diamond, K. R. Knapp, M. C. Kruk, and E. J. Gibney, 2010: Toward a homogenous global tropical cyclone best track dataset
- Kruk, M. C., K. R. Knapp, and D. H. Levinson, 2010: A technique for merging global tropical cyclone best track data.