The volume Observed Global Climate comprises a set of climate budget quantities, relevant for atmosphere and ocean (the climate fluids ) as well as for land and ice (the climate solids ). Examples for budget quantities are temperature, salinity, wind, rain, radiation. They are displayed in standardised form for all climate subsystems.

The data are arranged around the budget principle which is basic for the entire climate system. The book demonstrates that budgeting is not only a useful principle but also that budget-thinking has practically become state of the art in modern quantitative climatology. Examples include the global water budget (consistency of the components better than 10%) and the global energy budget (consistency better than 5%).

The data are based on direct observations but have been subject to data assimilation. They are presented in gridded form and in form of maps and sections. The DVD carries the data, the original articles, figures in original colours, plus additional material like animations of the most important climate parameters and selected non-standard quantities. The gridded fields can be loaded by the user from the DVD into the personal computer.