TITLE: NAME Event Rain gauge Network (NERN) AUTHORS: D. J. Gochis email: gochis@rap.ucar.edu phone: 303 497 2809 address: National Center for Atmospheric Research Research Applications Program 3450 Mitchell Lane Boulder, CO USA 80304 J.-C. Leal (ret.) A. Jimenez (ret.) J. Cesar-Rodriguez email: jcrod2001@yahoo.com phone: 011 52 662 214 6508 C. Watts email: watts@fisica.uson.mx phone: address: W.J. Shuttleworth email: shuttle@hwr.arizona.edu phone: 520 621 8787 address: J. Garatuza-Payan email: garatuza@yaqui.itson.mx phone: address: README File Updated: 05/07/03 D. Gochis gochis@rap.ucar.edu 05/12/04 D. Gochis gochis@rap.ucar.edu 02/15/05 D. Gochis gochis@rap.ucar.edu This work is funded by: NOAA Joint CLIVAR/PACS-GEWEX/GAPP North American Warm Season Precipitation Initiative Contract No.: NA16GP2002 and by: The Research Applications Program and the Advanced Study Program and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.0 DATA SET OVERVIEW The NAME Event-Based raingage network (NERN) consists of 87 tipping bucket raingages that have been installed in primarily east-west transects across the Sierra Madre Occidental in Northwest Mexico. 50 gages were installed in 2002 and 31 were installed in 2003 and 6 were installed in 2004. The objectives of the network are to improve the sampling of precipitation at a variety of elevations across the complex terrain of the Sierra Madre as well as to provide event based data which permits the calculation of instantaneous rain rates. Nearly 25% of the new event gages are collocated with existing manually measured daily precipitation gages operated by the cooperative network of the Comision Nacional del Agua (CNA) of Mexico. Collocation permits cross-validation, quality-control and helps to ensure the safety of the gages. Detailed logs of the instruments, installation and downloading procedures, and quality control information are distributed with each data archive submission and are available from the investigators. For a peer reviewed technical note describing the network and some preliminary results from the summer of 2002 please refer to: (Please use this reference to cite this data) Gochis, D.G., J.-C. Leal, W.J. Shuttleworth, C. Watts, and J. Garatuza-Payan, 2003: Preliminary Diagnostics from a New Event-Based Precipitation Monitoring System in Support of NAME (North American Monsoon Experiment). J. Hydrometeorology, 4, 974-981. For a more comprehensive analysis of data from the NERN please refer to: Gochis, D.G., A. Jimenez, C.J. Watts, J. Garatuza-Payan, and W.J. Shuttleworth, 2004: Analysis of 2002 and 2003 warm-season precipitation from the North American Monsoon Experiment Event Rain Gauge Network. Mon. Wea. Rev. 132, 2938-2953. For detailed technical documentation of the network please refer to: Gochis, D.G., J.-C. Leal, A. Jimenez, W.J. Shuttleworth, C. Watts, 2005: NAME Surface Raingage Network Station Files. Technical document available from the authors. For quality control information please refer to: Gochis, D.G., J.-C. Leal, A. Jimenez, 2005: NAME Tipping Bucket Raingage Network Quality Control Log. Technical Document available from the authors or from JOSS. 2.0 INSTRUMENT DESCRIPTION The tipping bucket raingage used in this project is the Texas Electronics TR-525USW, which is calibrated at 0.254 mm (0.01 in) per tip. Factory calibration of the raingage is reported to yield an accuracy of +/- 1% at a rain rate of 25.4 mm/hr. Field calibration will be performed in coordination with the downloading and servicing of each gauge. Each tip of the bucket triggers an electronic signal, which is stored on an Onset Computer Corporation "HOBO" Event datalogger. Rainfall events are stored on the datalogger until manually downloaded. Presently, there are no remote communication devices attached to the raingages. The HOBO datalogger has an 8000 event storage capacity, which results in the effective storage of 2032 mm of precipitation. This quantity is substantially higher than the mean annual precipitation in the NAME region. However, it is not guaranteed that this capacity will never be exceeded in a particular year. Thus, the entire network is scheduled to be downloaded at least twice a year to preserve as much data as possible. Technical specifications on both the raingage and the datalogger can be obtained from the vendor's websites at the following URL's: www.texaselectronics.com www.onsetcomp.com. More information about the network can be found in a technical document provided by the authors: Gochis, D.G., J.-C. Leal, W.J. Shuttleworth, C. Watts, 2005: NAME Surface Raingage Network Station Files. Technical document available from the authors. 3.0 DATA COLLECTION AND PROCESSING Rainfall data is collected at a minimum of twice per year. As each gage is visited the data is downloaded to a laptop computer and the gage is visually inspected for damage, obstruction or anything that may inhibit the proper function of the gage. A instrument log is kept which details the status and any observed problems with each raingage. The raw rainfall data is stored as rainfall events which correspond to tips of the tipping bucket mechanism. This data is reprocessed into the following equal interval periods: 5 min 15 min 30 min 1 hr 3 hr 12 hr 24 hr Quality control of the tipping bucket gage data is performed by visual screening of the raw data time series and by direct comparison with manually operated cooperative raingages which are collocated at approximately 25% of the gage sites. As of Feb. 2005, an automated gross error check has been implemented into the data processing algorithms. This routine flags 05min rainfall values which are in excess of 12mm (=144 mm/hr). These 'extreme' events are then manually examined in order to determine whether or not the event was in fact plausible. Additional details of the gross error check methodology and full details of the quality control procedures and the results of the quality control assessment can be found in a Quality Control Document prepared by the investigators: Gochis, D.G., J.-C. Leal, A. Jimenez, 2005: NAME Tipping Bucket Raingage Network Quality Control Log. Technical Document available from the authors or from JOSS. 4.0 DATA FORMAT Enclosed in this directory are the raw data files and equal-interval processed data from the enhanced surface raingage network for NAME. This directory contains data downloaded from the network between 09/2002 and 2/2005. The data are stored as raw event and equal interval ASCII text files. The investigators have FORTRAN90 code available to process and format both the raw and event data. Please feel free to request the proper FORMAT statements for reading or writing the data if necessary. SPECIAL NOTE: As of May, 2004 the raw event data is not distributed to the JOSS archive but is available from the invesitigators upon request. RAW EVENT DATA The format for the raw event data is as follows: Serial Number: 542518 -- Series: Event (Lluvia) Date,Time,Event (Lluvia)^M 07/06/02,10:47:59.0,0^M 07/08/02,16:36:48.0,1^M 07/08/02,16:37:41.5,2^M 07/08/02,16:38:45.0,3^M . . . Explanation: There are three header lines in the raw data, the first Begins with 'Serial number...', the second line is blank and the third provides the column headers Date, Time, and Event number. Time is recorded to the tenths of seconds. Event number is merely the number of tips that have occurred since the gage was last downloaded. NOTE: Should the gage record more than 8000 events the datalogger will begin to overwrite the events starting at the beginning. The total number of tips will be preserved but the time information for the earliest, overwritten tips will be lost. Also, it may be necessary to perform a dos2unix operation on the raw data as it is recorded in a PC compatible format. EQUAL INTERVAL DATA The format for the ALL of the equal interval data follow the standard JOSS archiving format: PI/DATA CONTACT = Gochis, David(NCAR/RAP) DATA COVERAGE = START: 0707183419.0; STOP: present PLATFORM/SITE = RAINGAGE INSTRUMENT = TE 525USW Tipping Bucket Raingage LOCATION = YECORA DATA VERSION = 2.0(Aug, 2003) REMARKS = NAME Event Raingage Network (NERN) REMARKS = Time in Mountain Standard Time (MST) REMARKS = Precipitation units are (mm) DATE/TIME LAT LON STN PRECIP MST Deg Deg Number mm 20020706170000.00 28.37414 251.07503 005 0.00 20020706170500.00 28.37414 251.07503 005 0.00 20020706171000.00 28.37414 251.07503 005 0.00 20020706171500.00 28.37414 251.07503 005 0.00 . . . Data Column 1 is the timestamp (YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.SS) Data Column 2 is the latitude (dec. deg) Data Column 3 is the longitude (dec. deg) Data Column 4 is the gage id number (1-50 for 2002, 1-100 thereafter) Data Column 5 is the interval summed precipitation amount in (mm) Missing Data: Data which is believed to be in error or that is missing due to instrument problems are designated with a Missing Data value of -99.99. A color map of the raingage locations is provided in the data tarfile. 5.0 DATA REMARKS The contents of these documents are subject to periodic update as more data and information about the network becomes available. Please email: Dave Gochis gochis@rap.ucar.edu with questions, problems or suggestions for improvement of the archival, documentation and distribution of this data. Please reference the J. Hydrometeorology 2003, or Mon. Wea. Review 2004 citations below when using any information from this network. 6.0 REFERENCES Gochis, D.G., J.-C. Leal, 2005: NAME Tipping Bucket Raingage Network Quality Control Log. Technical Document available from the authors or from JOSS. Gochis, D.G., J.-C. Leal, W.J. Shuttleworth, C. Watts, 2005: NAME Surface Raingage Network Station Files. Technical document available from the authors. Gochis, D.G., A. Jimenez, C.J. Watts, J. Garatuza-Payan, and W.J. Shuttleworth, 2004: Analysis of 2002 and 2003 warm-season precipitation from the North American Monsoon Experiment Event Rain Gauge Network. Mon. Wea. Rev. 132, 2938-2953. Gochis, D.G., J.-C. Leal, W.J. Shuttleworth, C. Watts, and J. Garatuza-Payan, 2003: Preliminary Diagnostics from a New Event-Based Precipitation Monitoring System in Support of NAME(North American Monsoon Experiment). J. Hydrometeorology, 4, 974-981. Updated: 05/07/03 D. Gochis gochis@rap.ucar.edu 05/12/04 D. Gochis gochis@rap.ucar.edu 02/15/05 D. Gochis gochis@rap.ucar.edu