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Supporting fisheries management with genomic tools: a case study of kingklip (Genypterus capensis) off southern Africa

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Data from: Revisiting Darwin’s naturalization conundrum: explaining invasion success of non-native trees and shrubs in southern Africa

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Data from: Using a multi-isotope approach to inform waterfowl movement in southern Africa

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Characteristics of the naturalized flora of Southern Africa largely reflect the non-random introduction of alien species for cultivation

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SAFARI 2000 TOMS Aerosol Index Data, Southern Africa, Dry Season 2000

Daily Aerosol Index (AI) data from Earth Probe (EP) Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) for the period of August 12-September 25, 2000 were processed and provided by the Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Branch at NASA/GSFC for the SAFARI 2000 Dry Season Aircraft Campaign.The TOMS AI is formed directly from measured TOMS radiances in two channels. It is a measure of how much the wavelength dependence of backscattered UV radiation from an atmosphere containing aerosols (Mie scattering, Rayleigh scattering, and absorption) differs from that of a pure molecular atmosphere (pure Rayleigh scattering). Quantitatively, the AI is defined at http://toms.gsfc.nasa.gov/aerosols/AI_definition/ai_ep_definition.pdf. Positive values represent absorbing aerosols (dust and smoke); negative values represent non-absorbing aerosols. The identification is not perfect because of geophysical reasons (e.g., when aerosols are too low to the ground).The data from TOMS records have been used increasingly to understand the behavior of aerosols within the atmosphere. The TOMS is the first instrument to allow observation of aerosols as the particles cross the land/sea boundary. Using these data it is possible to observe a wide range of phenomena such as desert dust storms, forest fires, and biomass burning.The TOMS AI data are a daily gridded Level-3 product (ASCII .dat format) that covers the area of 40 deg. S to the Equator and 40 deg. W to 80 deg. E. There is also a JPEG image of each data file.

SAFARI 2000 MISR Level 2 Data, Southern Africa, Dry Season 2000

MISR (Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer) views the sunlit Earth simultaneously at nine widely spaced and collects global images with high spatial detail in four colors at every angle. These images are carefully calibrated to provide accurate measures of the brightness, contrast, and color of reflected sunlight. The change in reflection at different view angles affords the means to distinguish different types of atmospheric particles (aerosols), cloud forms, and land surface covers. Combined with stereoscopic techniques, this enables construction of 3-dimensional models and more accurate estimates of the total amount of sunlight reflected by Earth's diverse environments.MISR was built for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It is part of NASA's Terra spacecraft, launched into a polar orbit around the Earth on December 18, 1999.The Southern African Fire Atmosphere Research Initiative (SAFARI) 2000 field campaign focused on the smoke and gases released into the environment of southern Africa by industrial, biological, and man-made sources such as biomass burning. The area of study and MISR path numbers include Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. These MISR data cover the period August 12 through September 28, 2000.

SAFARI 2000 MODIS L3 Albedo and Land Cover Data, Southern Africa, Dry Season 2000

The Filled Land Surface Albedo Product for Southern Africa, which is generated from MOD43B3 Product (the official Terra/MODIS-derived Land Surface Albedo - http://geography.bu.edu/brdf/userguide/albedo.html ), is a subset of the global data set of spatially complete albedo maps computed for both white-sky and black-sky at 10 wavelengths. The data spatial extent is from approximately 5 degrees N to -30 degrees S latitude and 5 minutes E to 60 degrees E longitude and covers 7 sixteen day periods starting on July 11 through October 15, 2000.Map Products, containing spatially complete land surface albedo data, are generated at 1-minute resolution on an equal-angle grid. The maps are stored in separate HDF files for each wavelength, each 16-day period and each albedo type (white- and black-sky). Data belonging to black sky and white sky albedo have been zipped separately. This format allows the user to have flexibility to download and store only the data absolutely needed.The One-Minute Land Ecosystem Classification Product is a global (static map) data set of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) classification scheme stored on an equal-angle rectangular grid at 1-minute resolution. The dataset is generated from the official MODIS land ecosystem classification dataset, MOD12Q1 for year 2000, day 289 data (October 15, 2000). This dataset is used in generating the spatially complete albedo maps, but is also a stand-alone product designed for use by the user community. The Land Ecosystem Classification Map File product file is stored in Hierarchical Data Format (HDF).

SAFARI 2000 MODIS MOD04_L2 Aerosol Data, GRANT Format, for Southern Africa

The subset of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) MOD04_L2 aerosol product provided in this data set represents the swaths that coincide with known times of the South African Weather Bureau/Service (SAWS) Aerocommanders JRA and JRB research aircraft missions to support aerosol research and validation activities for the SAFARI 2000 region. The MODIS aerosol product monitors the ambient aerosol optical thickness over the oceans globally and over a portion of the continents. Further, the aerosol size distribution is derived over the oceans, and the aerosol type is derived over the continents. Daily Level 2 data are produced at the spatial resolution of a 10 x 10 1 km (at nadir) pixel array. The daily data files cover the period August 21, 2000, through September 26, 2000. For some data collection dates, there are two or more data files.The MOD04_L2 swath data files included in this data set are from the GSFC DAAC (V4.1.0, Collection 004). The MODIS Level 2 data files were converted from Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) to granule tables (GRANT) format. The GRANT format provides the extracted Scientific Data Set (SDS) in ASCII table form where each pixel (x,y) is represented as a row of data with georeferencing information and each SDS is provided as a separate column in the table. The ASCII tables are in comma-delimited format.

SAFARI 2000 MAPSS MOD04_L2 Aerosol Summary Data for Southern Africa

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)Atmosphere Group develops remote sensing algorithms for deriving sets of atmospheric parameters from MODIS radiance data. These parameters can be integrated into conceptual and predictive global models. MODIS Atmosphere Products Subset Statistics (MAPSS) are generated over important locations around the world, as one of the ways to increase the scope of application of the MODIS atmospheric parameters. This MAPSS data set contains daily time series of the MODIS MOD04_L2 aerosol product over seventeen (17) AERONET sunphotometer measurement sites in southern Africa for the period February 26, 2000, through December 31, 2001. The process of generating the statistics involves identifying these locations on the MODIS MOD04_L2 product, extracting the values of the pixel corresponding to each coordinate point as well as surrounding pixels falling within a 50 x 50 km box centered on the coordinate point. The data files are stored as ASCII tables in comma-separated-value (.csv) format. There is one file per site per year for each of the following variables: cloud fraction (land); cloud fraction (ocean); particle effective radius (ocean); optical depth (land and ocean); optical depth (land, corrected); optical depth (ocean, effective average); and optical depth ratio (small ocean).

SAFARI 2000 TOMS Tropospheric Ozone Data, Southern Africa Subset, Dry Season 2000

Tropical Tropospheric Ozone (TTO) data from Earth Probe (EP) Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) for the period of August 8-September 29, 2000 were processed and provided by the Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Branch at NASA/GSFC for the SAFARI 2000 Dry Season Aircraft Campaign.The TTO measurement is derived from TOMS total ozone (Thompson and Hudson, 1999; Thompson et al., 2001) using the modified-residual method to separate stratospheric ozone from tropospheric ozone. The tropospheric ozone column thickness is reported in Dobson Units (DU).EP TOMS is currently the only NASA spacecraft on orbit specializing in ozone retrieval. EP TOMS was launched in 1996 into an orbit 500 km rather than the 950 km that was originally planned. The Earth Probe satellite was boosted to 740 km in 1997 when the ADEOS satellite failed. The lower orbit of EP TOMS decreased the size of the footprint of each measurement, which increased the resolution and also increased the ability to make measurements over cloudless scenes. This orbit was chosen to improve the ability of the TOMS instrument to make measurements of UV-absorbing aerosols in the troposphere and enhanced the capability of converting the TOMS aerosol measurements into geophysical quantities such as optical depth. Tropospheric aerosols play a major role in the Earth's climate and the capability to measure them from a TOMS instrument had recently been developed using data from Nimbus-7 and Meteor-3 TOMS.The TOMS Tropospheric Ozone data are 9-day averaged, gridded (1-degree by 2-degree) ASCII products. There is also a GIF image of each data file.

SAFARI 2000 Solar Spectral Flux Radiometer Data, Southern Africa, Dry Season 2000

The Solar Spectral Flux Radiometer (SSFR) was deployed on the University of Washington CV-580 during the dry season component of the Southern African Regional Science Initiative, August 1 - September 20, 2000. The SSFR made simultaneous measurements of both downwelling and upwelling net solar spectral irradiance at varying flight levels. Data have been provided for twenty flights in netcdf format for the period August 17 - September 16, 2000.For a complete detailed guide to the extensive measurements obtained aboard the UW Convair-580 aircraft in support of SAFARI 2000, see the UW Technical Report for the SAFARI 2000 Project.

SAFARI 2000 MODIS MOD05_L2 Water Vapor Data, Binary Format, for Southern Africa

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) precipitable water product consists of vertical column water-vapor amounts in centimeters (cm) at 1-km spatial resolution. The SAFARI 2000 product, provided in flat binary data files, is a subset of the official MODIS Level 2 MOD05 product in EOS Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) format. Specifically, the SAFARI product contains data from daytime-only MODIS granules over southern Africa for the period August 21, 2000, through September 20, 2000. A granule is the data collected over the full MODIS swath in a five-minute period. Further, the SAFARI product contains values generated by the MODIS near-infrared algorithm applied over clear land areas only (determined via the QA bit field). All values were derived from MODIS on the morning-pass Terra satellite. The product is very sensitive to boundary-layer water vapor since it is derived from attenuation of reflected solar light from the surface. This data product is essential to understanding the hydrological cycle, aerosol properties, aerosol-cloud interactions, energy budget, and climate.The MOD05 water vapor data files were converted from their original HDF format to flat binary files for this SAFARI 2000 data set. The conversion was performed using code developed in the Interactive Data Language (IDL) Version 5.5. The following Scientific Data Sets (SDS) are provided in this data set: Latitude; Longitude; Sensor_Zenith; and Water_Vapor_Near_Infrared.

SAFARI 2000 Modeled Fuel Load in Southern Africa, 1999-2000

This data set contains global, spatially explicit (1 km2 grid cells) and temporally explicit (semi-monthly) modeled output of fuel loads over southern Africa. The fuel types considered in the data set are litter (dead tree leaves), dead grass, green grass, and small-diameter twigs. The Production Efficiency Model (PEM) was used to produce the estimated fuel loads for southern Africa for the 1999-2000 growing seasons. In order to accommodate the southern African growing season, which spans October to May, the PEM was run on twenty-four 15-day intervals from September 1, 1999 to August 31, 2000. The fuel load model was calibrated from measurements recorded in 1996 along the Kalahari Transect, and has been verified from independent site measurements of fuel loads recorded during the SAFARI 2000 dry season field campaign in August and September of 2000 (Alleaume et al., 2003, Hely et al., 2003a) as well as other past campaigns.This data set consists of gridded binary image files. The single-byte images have a 1 km resolution and the grid is 3900 columns by 4800 rows in size. There are 24 files each for litter, dead grass, and green grass fuel loads, and a single file for the twig fuel loads. For the latter, small twigs (less than 1cm in diameter) are calculated from the tree cover percentage (UMD Tree Cover from Hansen et al., 2000) using an empirical relationship (Alleaume et al., 2003). Therefore, this fuel type is a constant throughout the year.

SAFARI 2000 MAPSS MOD05_L2 Water Vapor Summary Data for Southern Africa

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Atmosphere Group develops remote-sensing algorithms for deriving sets of atmospheric parameters from MODIS radiance data. These parameters can be integrated into conceptual and predictive global models. MODIS Atmosphere Products Subset Statistics (MAPSS) are generated over important locations around the world, as one of the ways to increase the scope of application of the MODIS atmospheric parameters. This MAPSS data set contains daily time series of the MODIS MOD05_L2 water vapor product over seventeen (17) AERONET sunphotometer measurement sites in southern Africa for the period February 24, 2000, through March 4, 2002. The process of generating the statistics involves identifying these locations on the MODIS MOD05_L2 product, extracting the values of the pixel corresponding to each coordinate point as well as surrounding pixels falling within a 50 x 50 km box centered on the coordinate point. The data product consists of column water-vapor amounts. During the daytime, a near-infrared algorithm is applied over clear land areas of the globe and above clouds over both land and ocean. Over clear ocean areas, water-vapor estimates are provided over the extended glint area. An infrared algorithm for deriving atmospheric profiles is also applied both day and night for Level 2. The data files are stored as ASCII tables in comma-separated-value (.csv) format. There is one file per site per year for each of the following two variables: total column precipitable water vapor (infrared retrieved) and total column precipitable water vapor (near-infrared retrieved).

SAFARI 2000 Global Burned Area Map, 1-km, Southern Africa, 2000

The Global Burned Area 2000 initiative (GBA2000) was launched by the Global Vegetation Mapping Unit of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, in partnership with several other institutions, to develop reliable and quantitative information on the global magnitude and spatial distribution of biomass burning. The objective of GBA2000 was to produce a map of the areas burned globally for the year 2000, using the medium resolution satellite imagery provided by the SPOT-VEGETATION (VGT) system and to derive statistics of area burned per type of vegetation cover. A subset of the global GBA20000 map was prepared for SAFARI 2000 to map the area burned in sub-Saharan Africa during 2000 on a monthly basis using VGT imagery at 1 km spatial resolution. Burned areas were identified with a classification tree, relying only on the near-infrared channel of VGT. The data used in this work are in the S1 daily synthesis format, i.e. the data are radiometrically calibrated, precisely geo-located, and corrected for atmospheric effects.The data are binary image files of area burned, BSQ format in geographic projection. There is one file for each month of 2000 and one file for all of the year 2000. There is also a comma-delimited ASCII text file that provides geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) of the center of each pixel indicated as a burned area for all of 2000.

SAFARI 2000 NBI Vegetation Map of the Savannas of Southern Africa

The National Botanical Institute (NBI) has mapped woody plant species distribution to provide estimates of individual species contribution to peak leaf area index for designated vegetation types in southern Africa (Rutherford et al., 2000). The target was to account for 80% of the woody vegetation leaf area in terms of named species, for 80% of the surface area of Africa south of the equator. The data sources include published and unpublished species lists for vegetation types and individual sample plots, with the species contribution estimated by local experts in terms of dominants and subdominants. Source maps include: Low and Rebelo (1998); Giess (1971); Wild and Barbosa (1968); Barbosa (1970); and White (1983). Each source map delineates a wide variety of land cover categories that differ from region to region. Because vegetation discontinuities exist along some of the regional borders and a perfectly continuous regional map could not be achieved within the timeframe and budget of the project, the final map is made up of six independent sub-regional maps. A cross-referenced database of woody plant species, in order of species dominance, associated with all mapped units is provided.The data set contains six GIS shapefile archives, each containing a shape file for a given region in southern Africa on a 5 x 5 degree grid. An accompanying ASCII file contains the species list associated with the map files. The regional NBI Vegetation Map (a compilation of the 6 independent sub-regional coverages) is provided as a JPEG image.

SAFARI 2000 Plant and Soil C and N Isotopes, Southern Africa, 1995-2000

This data set contains measurements of the concentration and stable carbon (13C / 12C) and nitrogen (15N / 14N) isotope ratios of plant (leaves, roots and fungi) and soil samples from southern Africa. The study sites in Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa are located along the Kalahari Transect precipitation gradient. Some of the sites were relatively undisturbed while others had different intensities of cultivation, domestic grazing, and fires. The data were collected to detect patterns of N cycling along precipitation and grazing gradients, including N2 fixation by legumes. Data from different multiple projects are included. The plants and soils were sampled mainly in the wet season of years 1995, 1999, and 2000, with most of the data collected during the SAFARI 2000 Kalahari Wet Season Field Campaign in February and March of 2000. Some grass samples were collected in the dry season of year 2000 (from Mongu-dambo and Sua Pan grassland sites). Soil and plant samples were analyzed in a laboratory for %C, %N, d13C, and d15N with an Optima isotope ratio mass spectrometer coupled to an elemental analyzer. The stable isotope ratios are expressed using standard delta notation in units per mil. The isotope ratios are expressed relative to the international standard PDB (Pee Dee Belemnite) for carbon and atmospheric N2 for nitrogen samples. The carbon and nitrogen contents are expressed in percentage weight of the dry sample.The data files contain numerical and character fields of varying length separated by commas (.csv format).

SAFARI 2000 MOPITT Tropospheric Carbon Monoxide, Southern Africa, Dry Season 2000

The MOPITT (Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere) instrument on the NASA Terra Satellite makes measurements of infrared radiation originating from the surface of the planet and isolates the energy being radiated from carbon monoxide (CO). By using appropriate data analysis techniques, concentration profiles of CO (Level-2 (L2) data) can be obtained on a global basis at a reasonably high horizontal (~22km) and vertical resolution (~3km).The MOPITT Level-3 (L3) data products provided in this data set are a subset of the daily averages from the L2 data. This subset was produced by overlaying a global 1x1-degree grid onto the L2 data, and then clipping the data to this southern Africa subset which originates at 5 degrees longitude and -35 degrees latitude and extends to 60 degrees longitude and 35 degrees latitude. Data are reported for 2 heights, 700 and 350 hPa, from daytime swaths for the period August 1-September 30, 2000, the SAFARI 2000 Dry Season Campaign.