This dataset contains "Special" observation surface data in University Corporation for Atmospheric Research/Joint Office for Science Support (UCAR/JOSS) Quality Control (QC) format for the following networks:
Data for the BAMEX 2003 domain (30N to 48N latitude and 80W to 104W longitude) and time period (20 May 2003 through 06 July 2003) are contained within this dataset. This BAMEX 2003 Surface Miscellaneous Composite dataset contains data from 1790 stations and is in the same format as the data in the BAMEX 2003 Mesonet: Hourly Surface Meteorological Composite. No additional QC was performed on this miscellaneous surface composite by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research/Joint Office for Science Support (UCAR/JOSS).
Section 2.0 contains a detailed description of the
instrumentation, siting, and algorithms used by the source network to collect
the data. Section 2.1 contains a detailed
description of the format of the composite dataset. See
Section 2.2 for information on data processing, and
Section 3.0 below for the quality control processing performed by UCAR/JOSS
on this dataset. Section 4.0 contains references.
This BAMEX 2003 Surface Miscellaneous Composite contains data from 7
stations within the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL)
network. The data was collected at 6 real-time meteorological stations at
exposed coastal sites around southern Lake Michigan, and the Alpena station
on Lake Huron.
For more information on GLERL
visit the GLERL
website ( GLERL, 2004). The information on
GLERL contained in this documentation was taken from this website. The GLERL
website contains a map of the GLERL stations. By clicking on a station you
can get to more detailed station information. The link "MetaData File"
provides a description of the instrumentation at that station.
Instrumentation varies somewhat by station. A typical installation
contains an R.M. Young model 5103 Wind monitor, a CSI model 107 thermistor
mounted in a naturally aspirated gill type radiation shield, and a CSI model
CR10X. This units samples the sensors every 5 seconds and is set to an
averaging interval of 5 minutes. The system is run from a 12A/hr gel cell
battery which is charged from the AC line. Sensors are located 40-80 feet
above the water.
The GLERL stations report 5-minute frequency data. UCAR/JOSS converts these
data to hourly for inclusion in the
BAMEX 2003 Mesonet: Hourly Surface Meteorological Composite.
The remaining off-hour records are included in this
BAMEX 2003 Mesonet Surface Miscellaneous Composite. Dew point and
sea level pressure were calculated by UCAR/JOSS when possible. For information
on the calculation of parameters derived by UCAR/JOSS from the
raw parameters available, see Section 2.2.
The
Unidata Local Data Manager (LDM) (Unidata, 2002
) distributes World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Surface data.
These data are ingested by UCAR/JOSS in
ASCII WMO
meteorological message structure format
(NOAA/NWS, 2002).
The primary feedset name is "WMO" which includes Public
Product Service (PPS), Domestic Data Service (DDS), High resolution Data
Service (HDS), and International Data Service (IDS) feedtypes. Only
products that match the patterns ^S[AP].* .... ([0-3][0-9])([0-2][0-9])
and ^SX..81 .... ([0-3][0-9])([0-2][0-9]) are collected. In these patterns,
S stands for surface, A for Aviation Routine Reports (FM 15 - METAR), P for
Special aviation weather reports (FM 16 - SPECI), and X for miscellaneous
text records. For information on the METAR format see the ASOS User's Guide, appendix, and ready reference guide.
(NOAA, 2003).
Observing, reporting, and coding standards for surface-based meteorological
observations from all federal agencies are defined in the
Federal
Meteorological Handbook 1.
Special data and METAR data that do not fall on the hour are included in
this dataset.
Hourly METAR data are available in the dataset '
BAMEX 2003 Mesonet: Hourly Surface Meteorological Composite
'. "Falling on the hour" is defined as follows. For 20 minute
METAR stations, the observation that falls between 15 minutes before
the hour and the hour, inclusive, is included in the hourly composite. If
there is no observation in this time period, then the observation closest
to the hour and falling between 1 minute and 15 minutes after the hour is
included in the hourly composite. All other observations are included in
this composite dataset. There are 780 LDMSFCMETR
stations in this BAMEX 2003 Mesonet: Surface Miscellaneous Composite.
This dataset contains ASOS, AWOS (USDOT, 1988
), and MANUAL stations. Station ID's
are 3 characters long. Some networks use the 4-character ID to refer to
these stations. To obtain the 4-character id, prepend a "K". For example,
station ABR could also be referred to as station KABR.
This data set contains hourly resolution surface meteorological data
from the NDBC moored buoy Coastal Marine (C-MAN) network. These stations
are located in and around the Great Lakes. Only buoy stations are
included in this BAMEX 2003 Mesonet: Surface Miscellaneous Composite. Land-based
observations are included in the
BAMEX 2003 Mesonet: Hourly Surface Meteorological Composite dataset.
All stations measure wind speed, direction, and gust; barometric pressure; and
air temperature. All buoys and many C-MAN stations located in offshore areas
operate on marine batteries
which are charged by solar cells. Data collection, averaging, and formatting for
satellite transmission are controlled by a payload computer system. On buoys,
the payloads and batteries are located inside the hull; on C-MAN stations, they
are located at the base of the tower.
NDBC uses commercially available sensors such as anemometers to measure wind
speed and direction and barometers to measure atmospheric pressure. Stations are
serviced as required to repair damaged or degraded equipment. In addition, all
buoys are serviced about every 2 years for routine maintenance and to install
newly calibrated sensors. The Great Lakes buoys are retrieved every fall because
of potential damage by ice.
NDBC Data Flow
The observations from moored buoys and C-MAN stations are transmitted hourly
through NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) to a
ground receiving facility at Wallops Island, VA, operated by the NOAA National
Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS). These reports
are immediately relayed to the NWS Telecommunications Gateway (NWSTG) in Silver
Spring, MD, where the reports undergo automated quality control. Observations
from smaller drifting buoys are transmitted through NOAA Polar Operational
Environmental Satellites (POES) to NESDIS and then to the NWSTG via Service
Argos (ARGOS), which adds location information. From the NWSTG, the data are
transmitted via various communications networks to NDBC and NWS offices and
posted on the Internet.
NDBC controls the transmission, quality control, and archival of data from the
NDBC computer center. NDBC also serves as a data assembly center for receiving,
quality controlling, and disseminating measurement data from other stations
owned and maintained by non-federal regional ocean observing systems, members of
the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS).
For more information in the NDBC stations, including maintenance reports and
current data, see the
National Data Buoy Center website. Sensor and siting information can be
found in the
Measurement Descriptions and Units (NDBC, 2004)
portion of this site.
Air temperature sensor heights are listed on the above website. Dewpoint
temperature is taken at the same height as the air temperature measurement.
For C-MAN sites and Great Lakes buoys, the recorded pressure is reduced to sea
level using the method described in NWS Technical Procedures Bulletin 291
(11/14/80).
Wind speed and direction are averaged over an eight-minute period for buoys
and a two-minute period for land stations. Information on the averaging
methods used is available on the
Measurement Descriptions and Units portion of the NDBC website.
This dataset is a collection of data from many networks. The data are fed to
JOSS over the LDM by the FSL Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System
(MADIS). Some of these networks are themselves collections of data from
unrelated sources. Each of these networks/subnetworks can contain different
frequency data and different parameters. 883 stations from the MADIS LDM feed
are included in this BAMEX 2003 Mesonet: Surface Miscellaneous Composite.
Conventions
The hourly parameter value is defined as the value closest to
the hour that falls at or after 45 minutes and before (but not at) 15 minutes
after the hour, and is included in the
BAMEX 2003 Mesonet: Hourly Surface Meteorological Composite
dataset. All other parameters are reported in
this BAMEX 2003 Mesonet: Surface Miscellaneous Composite.
MADIS QC flags are not carried forward to JOSS format. However,
the MADIS QC summary value X "Failed QC stage 1", which is a gross limit check,
has been used to mask out extremely unlikely data. If the data fails this check,
it is set to missing. Precipitation data has not been included in this composite
.
For more information on these networks, see the
FSL/MADIS Surface Network Information webpage
(FSL, 2003).
Information on the sensors and algorithms used to collect this North Dakota
Roadway Weather Information System data are not currently available. 10 stations
in this network are included in this BAMEX 2003 Hourly Surface Composite.
Wind directions provided by the North Dakota RWIS are reported as one of the 8
cardinal directions. UCAR/JOSS converts these winds to their decimal equivalent
with North being zero. Wind speeds reported as calm by North Dakota RWIS were
set to zero in this composite.
UCAR/JOSS reports hourly records in the
BAMEX 2003 Mesonet: Hourly Surface Meteorological Composite.
If a record was not found exactly on the hour, the nearest record
in the ten minutes before the hour was used followed by the 5 minutes after the
hour. If there was not a record in this 15 minute interval, there is no record
reported for that hour in the hourly composite. Records that did not fall on
the hour are reported in this BAMEX 2003 Mesonet: Surface Miscellaneous
Composite.
RWIS often does not record elevations for their stations.
For more information on this network, see the
ND RWIS webpage.
In 1980, a network of automated weather stations was established in Ohio in a
cooperative research effort between OARDC and Miami University. In 2002, USDA
set up stations at nurseries, and OARDC cooperated with them to make the data
available online. These new stations (Avon, Perry and Madison aka SUNLEAF)
are updated every 15 minutes and the data are available
here in
a graphical format. The purpose of this network was to obtain a geographically
comprehensive and cohesive set of Ohio climatic data for research purposes.
Please note that these data are gathered automatically by computers and
remote sensors and do not represent official U.S. Weather Bureau records.
The network now consists of 15 stations, 13 of which are automated,
and most of which are located at OARDC branch campuses. 2 of these stations,
PERRY and SUNLEAF,
report at off-hour times and are included in this BAMEX 2003 Mesonet: Surface
Miscellaneous Composite.
The 11 on-hour stations in the BAMEX area of interest have been included in the
BAMEX 2003 Mesonet: Hourly Surface Meteorological Composite.
Stations PERRY and SUNLEAF have missing elevations. There are no provided
elevations for these stations.
Instrumentation at the stations is consistent.
OARDC does not change the data, but if they become aware of a data problem, the
affected data are deleted. One exception is that any RH over 100% is
reported as 100.
Instrumentation:
Since the weather stations were established in support of agricultural
research, instrumentation was designed to provide the data elements most
critical for this purpose. Each station is equipped with a DC-powered Campbell
Scientific datalogger and a DC-powered modem to provide data storage and
transmittal to the central computer storage facility on the Wooster campus of
the OARDC. The dataloggers are able to retain almost one month of hourly data.
Instrumentation includes sensors to measure temperature and relative
humidity in a non-aspirated shelter at 1.5m; wind speed and wind direction at
5 m, and precipitation at 1 m.
UCAR/JOSS calculates dewpoint from relative humidity and temperature.
For information on the calculation of
parameters derived by UCAR/JOSS from the raw parameters available, see
Section 2.2.
For more information and current data, please visit the
OARDC website (OARDC, 2004)
This network contains surface meteorological data from 62
stations in the Ohio Road Weather Information System (RWIS) operated by the Ohio
Department of Transportation. The network includes stations along
roads throughout the state of Ohio.
Instrumentation
All the atmospheric instruments are made by Vaisala, Inc. and are mounted
on a pole 20' in the air. RWIS does not record elevations for their stations.
Wind direction is a two-minute average of the direction from which the wind is
blowing measured clockwise in degrees from true North
Wind speed is a two minute average of the wind speed
Gust speed is the maximum wind gust recorded during the 10 minutes preceding the
observation.
Air temperature is the instantaneous dry-bulb temperature
The dewpoint temperature is also an instantaneous reading. When dewpoint
temperature was not available, it was calculated by UCAR/JOSS from the relative
humidity and temperature. For information on the calculation of
parameters derived by UCAR/JOSS from the raw parameters available, see
Section 2.2.
Surface visibility is measured to one tenth of a meter.
UCAR/JOSS only reports off-hour records in this BAMEX 2003 Mesonet: Surface
Miscellaneous Composite.
Records that fall on the hour are reported in the
BAMEX 2003 Mesonet: Hourly Surface Meteorological Composite.
If a record was not found exactly on the hour, the nearest record
in the ten minutes before the hour was used followed by the 5 minutes after the
hour. If there was not a record in this 15 minute interval, there is no record
reported for that hour in the hourly composite.
If there are two records with the same actual time for a station, the first one
in the file is selected. The other record is placed in this
BAMEX 2003 Mesonet: Surface Miscellaneous Composite.
More information on the Ohio RWIS network can be found on the
Ohio Department of
Transportation Buckeye Traffic website.
This data set contains hourly resolution surface meteorological
data from the West Texas Mesonet operated by Texas Tech. The West
Texas Mesonet includes 38 stations in the region around Lubbock, Texas.
Instrumentation
Each mesonet station consists of a fenced 10x10 meter plot of land,
10 meter tower, solar panel, RF modem and antenna.
Instrumentation for a basic mesonet station follows:
UCAR/JOSS calculates the dewpoint and sea level pressure.
For information on the calculation of parameters derived by UCAR/JOSS
from the raw parameters available, see Section 2.2
.
The West Texas Mesonet reports data at 5-minute intervals. UCAR/JOSS
takes the report falling closest to the hour and includes it in the
BAMEX 2003 Mesonet: Hourly Surface Meteorological Composite. Records
that did not fall on the hour are reported in this BAMEX 2003 Mesonet:
Surface Miscellaneous Composite.
For information on, and to access, data and parameters not included in
this BAMEX 2003 Hourly Surface Composite, see the
BAMEX Mesonet: Texas West Texas Mesonet Data [Texas Tech] dataset
For more information see the
West Texas Mesonet home page (Texas Tech
University, cited 2003).
Since 1985, the University of Wisconsin - Extension has maintained a system of
automated weather stations in Wisconsin to provide meteorological data for
agriculture and agricultural research. One stations from this University of
Wisconsin Automated Weather Observation Network is included in this BAMEX 2003
Mesonet: Surface Miscellaneous Composite.
WI AWON reports data at 30 minute intervals. UCAR/JOSS reports hourly data in
the
BAMEX 2003 Mesonet: Hourly Surface Meteorological Composite.
Records that did not fall on the
hour are reported in this BAMEX 2003 Mesonet: Surface Miscellaneous Composite.
The algorithms used to produce the WI AWON data are not currently available.
Wisconsin AWON does not report elevations.
The AWON website is www.soils.wisc.edu/wimnext/awon/awon.html
The code values for the Squall/Gust Indicator are:
Table 3.1 - Quality Control Flags
GLERL, cited 2004: GLERL Realtime Meteorological Observation Network [
Available online from
http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/metdata]
NDBC, 2004: Measurement Descriptions and Units [Available online from
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/measdes.shtml]
NOAA, National Weather Service, Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS),
cited 2003: ASOS User's Guide
NOAA/NWS, cited 2002: WMO Message structure 2000 Paraphrased Version
[Available online from
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/tg/head.html].
OARDC, 2004: OARDC Weather Stations [Available online from
http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/centernet/weather.htm ]
Texas Tech University, cited 2003: West Texas Mesonet home page
[Available online from
http://www.mesonet.ttu.edu/]
Unidata, Cited 2002: Unidata LDM [Available online from
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/ldm/].
United States Department of Transportation (USDOT), 1988. AWOS
Operations Manual, Federal Aviation Administration.
World Meteorological Organization (WMO), 1988: Manual on Codes
Volume I, Part B - Binary Codes. WMO, Geneva, Switzerland.
2.0 Detailed Data Description
2.0.1 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Great
Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) Algorithms
2.0.2 Unidata Local Data Manager (LDM) World Meteorological
Organization (WMO) (LDMSFCMETR) Algorithms
2.0.3 National Data Buoy Center Network (NDBC) Algorithms
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Data
Buoy Center (NDBC), is a part of the National Weather Service (NWS). NDBC
designs, develops, operates, and maintains a network of data collecting buoys
and coastal stations. There are 7 NDBC stations included
in this BAMEX 2003 Mesonet: Surface Miscellaneous Composite.
2.0.4 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Forecast
Systems Laboratory (FSL) Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System
(MADIS)
2.0.5 North Dakota Roadway Weather Information System (RWIS) Network
Algorithms
2.0.6 Ohio Agricultural Research & Development Center (OARDC)
Algorithms
2.0.7 Ohio Roadway Weather Information System (RWIS) Network
Algorithms
2.0.8 Texas West Texas Mesonet (WTXMESO) Algorithms
2.0.9 Wisconsin Automated Weather Observation Network (WI_AWON)
Algorithms
2.1 Detailed Format Description
The BAMEX 2003 Surface Miscellaneous observation data contains
ten metadata parameters and 38 data parameters and flags. The metadata
parameters describe the station location and time at which the data were
collected. The time of observation is reported both in Universal Time
Coordinated (UTC) Nominal and UTC actual time. For the BAMEX 2003
Miscellaneous data, the UTC Nominal and UTC actual times are equal to the
time of observation and are always identical. Days begin at UTC 0100 and
end at UTC 0000 the following day. The table below details the data
parameters in each record. Several data parameters have an associated
Quality Control (QC) Flag Code which are assigned by the Joint Office for
Science Support (JOSS). For a list of possible QC Flag values see the
Quality Control section 3.0. No additional QC
was performed by UCAR/JOSS.
Parameters Units
---------- -----
Date of Observation UTC Nominal
Time of Observation UTC Nominal
Date of Observation UTC Actual
Time of Observation UTC Actual
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
Station Elevation Meters
Station Pressure, QC flag Hectopascals (mb)
Reported Sea Level Pressure, QC flag Hectopascals (mb)
Computed Sea Level Pressure, QC flag Hectopascals (mb)
Dry Bulb Temperature, QC flag Celsius
Dew Point, QC flag Celsius
Wind Speed, QC flag m/s
Wind Direction, QC flag Degrees
Total Precipitation, QC flag mm
Squall/Gust Indicator Code Value
Squall/Gust Value, QC flag m/s
Present Weather, QC flag Code Value
Visibility, QC flag Meters
Ceiling Height (first layer) Hundreds of feet
Ceiling Flag (first layer), QC flag Code Value
Cloud Amount (first layer), QC flag Code Value
Ceiling Height (second layer) Hundreds of feet
Ceiling Flag (second layer), QC flag Code Value
Cloud Amount (second layer), QC flag Code Value
Ceiling Height (third layer) Hundreds of feet
Ceiling Flag (third layer), QC flag Code Value
Cloud Amount (third layer), QC flag Code Value
The list of code values for the Present Weather is too large to reproduce
in this document. Refer to WMO, 1988 for a
complete list of Present Weather codes.
Code Definition
---- ----------
blank No Squall or Gust
S Squall
G Gust
The code values for the ceiling flag Indicator are:
Code Definition
---- ----------
0 None
1 Thin
2 Clear below 12,000 feet
3 Estimated
4 Measured
5 Indefinite
6 Balloon
7 Aircraft
8 Measured/Variable
9 Clear below 6,000 feet (AUTOB)
10 Estimated / Variable
11 Indefinite / Variable
12 12-14 reserved
15 Missing
The code values for the Cloud Amount Indicator are:
Code Definition
---- ----------
0 0 ( or clear)
1 1 okta or less, but not zero or 1/10 or less, but not zero
2 2 oktas or 2/10-3/10
3 3 oktas or 4/10
4 4 oktas or 5/10
5 5 oktas or 6/10
6 6 oktas or 7/10-8/10
7 7 oktas or more, but no 8 oktas or 9/10 or more, but not 10/10
8 8 oktas or 10/10 (or overcast)
9 Sky obscured by fog and/or other meteorological phenomena
10 Sky partially obscured by fog and/or other meteorological
phenomena
11 Scattered
12 Broken
13 13-14 Reserved
15 Cloud cover is indiscernible for reasons other than fog or
other meteorological phenomena, or observation is not made.
2.2 Data Remarks
This dataset contains the BAMEX 2003 Surface "Special" observation data
as well as records stripped from the
BAMEX 2003
Mesonet: Hourly Surface Meteorological Composite. The
BAMEX 2003
Mesonet: Hourly Surface Meteorological Composite contains only the "Nominal"
hourly observations for the BAMEX 2003 domain and time period.
3.0 Quality Control Processing
No quality control (QC) was performed by UCAR/JOSS. The possible
quality control flags are listed in Table 3.1 below.
QC Code Description
------- -----------
U Unchecked
G Good
M Normally recorded but missing.
D Questionable
B Unlikely
N Not available or Not observed
X Glitch
E Estimated
C Reported value exceeds output format field size
or was negative precipitation.
T Trace precipitation amount recorded
I Derived parameter can not be computed due to
insufficient data.
4.0 References
FSL, cited 2003: Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System (MADIS)
Surface Network Information
[Available online from
http://www-sdd.fsl.noaa.gov/MADIS/network_info.html]