The International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project was established in 1983 under the United Nation's Environmental Programme to promote the use of satellite data for the global land surface data sets needed for climate studies. This CD-ROM set contains the Initiative I data collection.

The collection four areas : land cover, hydro-meteorology, radiation, and soils, spanning the 24 month period 1987-1988. All but one are mapped to a common spatial resolution and grid (1 degree x 1 degree). Temporal resolution for most datasets is monthly; however, a few are at a finer resolution (e.g., 6-hourly). The data within the four areas are organized into five groups within this collection: vegetation, Hydrology and Soils, Snow, Ice and Oceans, Radiation and Clouds, and Near-Surface Meteorology. This dataset collection is public.

While ISLSCP Inititative I covers 2 years (1987 and 1988), ISLSCP Inititative II spans a 10-year period for 1986 to 1995.