PACS Costa Rican Monthly Precipitation 1.0 General Description The Costa Rican Monthly Precipitation is one of several precipitation datasets provided in the Pan American Climate Studies (PACS). This precipitation dataset contains monthly precipitation data from 14 monthly stations within Costa Rica. Data from this source were not quality controlled by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research/ Joint Office for Science Support (UCAR/JOSS). 2.0 Detailed Data Description The Costa Rican Monthly Precipitation dataset is formed by retaining all raw data. Precipitation values are incremental. No information on the formation of the raw dataset is available at this time. 2.1 Detailed Format Description The Monthly Precipitation Composite contains six metadata parameters and four data parameters. The metadata parameters describe the station location and time at which the data were collected. The four data parameters repeat once for each month in the yearly record. Every record has 12 months reported. Each monthly precipitation value has an associated observation hour. The observation hour is the UTC hour on the first day of the month after the month for which each monthly precipitation value is valid. So an observation hour of 13 associated with January data means that the January data was collected from Jan 01 at 13Z to February 01 at 13Z. A Quality Flag and a Quality Control (QC) Code are assigned to each data value during quality control processing. For a list of possible Quality Flag and QC Code values see the Quality Control section 3.0. The table below details each parameter. Parameters Units ---------------------- ------------------------------------- Year of Observation UTC Network Identifier Abbreviation of platform name Station Identifier Network Dependent Latitude Decimal degrees, South is negative Longitude Decimal degrees, West is negative Station Occurrence Unitless Monthly Precip Value millimeters Quality Flag See list of Definitions QC Code See list of Definitions Observation hour Beginning UTC hour for first day of monthly period for which value is valid. 2.2 Data Remarks None. 3.0 Quality Control Processing These data were not quality controlled by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research/Joint Office for Science Support. 4.0 References None.