An extensive part of the lab's effort has continually been the acquisition and archiving of data sets.  Most of the effort has involved African precipitation records, including gauge data for modern stations and 19th century stations.  Recent efforts have expanded the focus, including arid lands in the Middle East, Mexico and Australia.  Also archived are gridded data sets with surface radiation and water balance parameters, lake levels and river discharge, and hydrologic variables over the East African lakes.  We are in the process of putting these on the web and donating them to various national climatic archives.