The Hamburg Ocean Atmosphere Parameters and Fluxes from Satellite Data (HOAPS) set is a completely satellite based climatology of precipitation, evaporation and freshwater budget (evaporation minus precipitation) as well as related turbulent heat fluxes and atmospheric state variables over the global ice free oceans.

All variables are derived from SSM/I passive microwave radiometers, except for the SST, which is taken from AVHRR measurements. The data set includes multi-satellite averages, inter-sensor calibration, and an efficient sea ice detection procedure.

Changes in this version are a prolonged time series, now containing data from 1987 to 2005, a new neural network based precipitation algorithm, and inclusion of the RSMAS/NODC Pathfinder Version 5 SST fields. Additionally a new 85 GHz synthesis procedure has been implemented for the time period to compensate for the missing channel information on DMSP F08, see accuracy report.

Apart from monthly and pentad (5-day) means on a global 0.5 deg. x 0.5 deg. grid, twice daily multi-satellite composite data on a global 1 x 1 grid are available.