Rene Lobato-Sanchez
Instituto Mexicano de Tecnologia del Agua (IMTA)
rlobato@tlaloc.imta.mx
The NAME supplemental raingauge network is a NOAA/OGP funded project in support of NAME science objectives. This project was based on the need for better rainfall data to validate atmospheric models dur to poor representation of the forced convection in complex terrains. This dataset contains daily precipitation data from 211 sites located within the state of Sonora and one within the state of Chihuahua for the time period August 19 - December 31, 2004.
The network consists of a low-tech raingauge network installed at 113 high elevation sites and 97 mean and low elevation sites in the state of Sonora. Daily rainfall values are reported for most of the sites.
The network utilizes the existing infrastructure (radio communication and personnel) of the Civil Protection Agency for the state of Sonora as well as infrastructure of other agencies with whom they have close communication (police, army, highways) and volunteers. Each station reports via radio or telephone to its municipality, the the municipality reports rain from their stations. Under special cases, data is quality controlled and validated. At the headquarters of CP-SON there is one person that contacts all the sites every day. Data are captured on a PC and sent to IMTA, SMN, local government and states users, and used for operational activites at CP-SON.
The data are in ASCII files by day. The first line of the file contains the date in the format YYYYMMDD. Subsequent lines are comma delimited and contain three fields: lat, lon, and daily precipitation value. Missing precipitation is coded as -999.00. Data are collected at 8AM local time. Precipitation is reported in millimeters.
Lobato, Rene : Personal communication October 2005
Lobato, Rene : Presentation at the NAME 2004 Data Analysis Meeting and Seventh Meeting of the NAME Science Working Group (SWG-7), Mexico City, MX, 9-11 MArch, 2005 [Available online at http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/name/science_planning/presentations/2005/swg7/20050310/lobato_simple_raingauge_network/index.html