One of the goals of the NOAA Pan American Climate Studies (PACS) Program is to understand the role of the trade winds, sea surface temperature, and the subtropical stratocumulus systems in the maintenance and variability of the eastern Pacific intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). Determination of the cloud properties and their interaction with the radiation budget and SST are crucial to understanding the relationship between the subtropical highs and the deep convection over the eastern Pacific. In this study, hourly multispectral GOES-8 data are analyzed to derive cloud properties, SST, and the radiation budget over the eastern Pacific and adjacent continental areas. Cloud amount, height, phase, effective particle size, optical depth, and liquid/ice water path are derived along with the SST, shortwave albedo, and the top-of-atmosphere longwave flux on a 0.5° latitude-longitude grid for a domain encompassed by 25°N, 40°S, 60°W, and 135°W. The inital analyses focus on the period between October and November 1999 when research ships from Chile and the USA were operating in the domain. Additional analyses arfe performed for an entire year between October 1999 and November 2000. In addition to cloud liquid water path data derived from satellite microwave measurements, data from the ships are used to validate the retrievals from GOES-8. These analyses are the first steps in the process of developing a climatology of cloud and radiation properties for use in meso- and large scale models of the circulation in the southeastern Pacific. Initial results and validations are presented.