Many global ecological models require globally-gridded daily weather d
ata, but such data are not directly available from the current global
network of weather stations. A method is described whereby a stochasti
c daily weather generator is parameterised to operate at the half-degr
ee scale for the earth's terrestrial surface. The weather generator si
mulates 24 h shortwave irradiance, precipitation, maximum and minimum
temperatures, and mean water vapour pressure. Parameterisation and use
of the weather generator as described here obviates the need for real
daily weather data for many applications. Mean monthly values of 24 h
shortwave irradiance, fraction of wet days, precipitation per wet day
, 24 h mean temperature amplitude, and mean water vapour pressure are
required to parameterise the weather generator. These data are derived
here from a database containing mean monthly relative sunshine durati
on, precipitation, and temperature gridded to the half-degree scale. S
tation-specific relationships between these data and those required by
the weather generator are calculated for climate stations distributed
around the earth. The regression parameters of these relationships ar
e then gridded and applied to the database, which is based on many mor
e stations than are available for the required weather generator param
eters. The resulting global mean monthly data fields and the weather g
enerator may be obtained from the author(1). (C) 1998 Published by Els
evier Science B.V. All rights reserved.