Why ASCII Formatted Data Files?
Many of the ISLSCP-2 data sets are in “ASCII Map” format — the global map files are stored as text (ASCII) numbers, separated by spaces. Each line ends in an ASCII value 10 character (a UNIX “newline” character). The 1-degree data has 360 numbers on each line and 180 lines. The half-degree data has 720 numbers on each line and 360 lines. The quarter-degree data has 1440 numbers on each line and 720 lines. This format was chosen because different computers use a different “byte order” to store complex numbers in binary format. This makes it difficult for users to be assured that any binary file they look at is being read properly, and not “byte swapped”. Thus, with ISLSCP-2 data stored in ASCII format, the data will be read the same on any computer. Also, it can be easily viewed (as numbers) in any word processing package. Any image display package that can import “ASCII Image” format (such as ImageJ) can be used to visualize the data files.
