TITLE: Mesonet Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS) Iowa 1-min Data [ISU] CONTACTS: Scot Loehrer NCAR/EOL P.O. Box 3000 Boulder, CO 80307-3000 phone: 303-497-2631 email: loehrer@ucar.edu 1.0 DATA SET OVERVIEW This data set contains 1-minute resolution surface meteorological data from the Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS) stations located across the state of Iowa. This data set covers the period from 1 February through 31 March 2009 and 1 November 2009 through 10 March 2010. The data are in comma-delimited ASCII format. 2.0 INSTRUMENT DESCRIPTION 2.1 Instrumentation information Some information on AWOS can be found at the Federal Aviation Administration Automated Weather Sensors page at: http://www2.faa.gov/asos/ Information on the Iowa AWOS can be found at the Iowa Environmental Mesonet AWOS page at: http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/AWOS/ 2.2 Station Locations These station locations are taken from the AirNav database (http://www.airnav.com). Elevations are in meters. City ID State Latitude Longitude Elev ---------------------------------------------------------------- ALGONA AXA IA 43.0779106 / -94.2719928 371.6 ANKENY IKV IA 41.6912856 / -93.5663033 277.4 ATLANTIC AIO IA 41.4072672 / -95.0469064 360.3 AUDUBON ADU IA 41.7013756 / -94.9205417 392.3 BOONE BNW IA 42.0495694 / -93.8475722 353.6 Carroll CIN IA 42.0461944 / -94.7890000 367.0 CHARITON CNC IA 41.0196239 / -93.3596803 320.0 CHARLES CITY CCY IA 43.0726086 / -92.6107783 342.9 CLARINDA ICL IA 40.7217836 / -95.0264267 302 CLARION CAV IA 42.7419439 / -93.7589094 354.2 COUNCIL BLUFFS CBF IA 41.2594722 / -95.7599722 381.9 CRESTON CSQ IA 41.0214614 / -94.3633192 394.4 DECORAH DEH IA 43.2755014 / -91.7393739 352.7 DENISON DNS IA 41.9864325 / -95.3807208 388.9 FAIRFIELD FFL IA 41.0533242 / -91.9789233 243.5 FORT MADISON FSW IA 40.6592625 / -91.3268175 220.7 HARLAN HNR IA 41.5843889 / -95.3396389 375.2 KEOKUK EOK IA 40.4599078 / -91.4285011 204.5 KNOXVILLE OXV IA 41.2988856 / -93.1138156 282.9 LeMARS LRJ IA 42.7780178 / -96.1936894 364.5 MONTICELLO MXO IA 42.2240453 / -91.1658219 253.9 Mount Pleasant MPZ IA 40.9466139 / -91.5110750 223.7 MUSCATINE MUT IA 41.3678633 / -91.1482164 167.0 NEWTON TNU IA 41.6744297 / -93.0217292 290 OELWEIN OLZ IA 42.6808447 / -91.9744783 328.0 ORANGE CITY ORC IA 42.9902644 / -96.0627967 431 Pella PEA IA 41.4000667 / -92.9458833 269.7 RED OAK RDK IA 41.0105278 / -95.2598611 318.2 SHELDON SHL IA 43.2083936 / -95.8334331 432.5 SHENANDOAH SDA IA 40.7514817 / -95.4134722 296.0 STORM LAKE SLB IA 42.5971944 / -95.2406667 453.5 Vinton VTI IA 42.2186261 / -92.0259281 258 WASHINGTON AWG IA 41.2761008 / -91.6734439 229.8 WEBSTER CITY EBS IA 42.4366389 / -93.8688611 341.7 3.0 DATA COLLECTION AND PROCESSING NCAR/EOL conducted no processing or quality control on these data. Further information is also available at the FAA Automated Weather Sensor Home Page: http://www2.faa.gov/asos/index.htm 4.0 DATA FORMAT AND FILE NAMING 4.1 Data Format The data are in comma delimited format. The parameters (in order) are: station identifier station name latitude longitude yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm (UTC) temperature in Deg F dew point temperature in Deg F Wind Speed (knots) Wind Direction Wind Gust (knots) Visibility (statute miles) Hourly Precipitation Accumulator (inches; reset to 0.0 at 56 minutes after each hour) Altimeter (inches of mercury) Cloud Deck 1 Height Cloud Deck 1 Coverage Cloud Deck 1 Code Cloud Deck 2 Height Cloud Deck 2 Coverage Cloud Deck 2 Code Cloud Deck 3 Height Cloud Deck 3 Coverage Cloud Deck 3 Code Code Translated Code: Meaning 0 NOREPORT No report, since lower cloud layers are obstructing. 1 SCATTERED Scattered (10% to 50% coverage) 2 BROKEN Broken (60% to 90% coverage) 4 OVERCAST Overcast (More than 90% coverage) 8 OBSCURATION Full obscuration (no ceiling or cloud amount available) 17 OBSCURATION Partial obscuration, lowest cloud layer is scattered. 18 OBSCURATION Partial obscuration, lowest cloud layer is broken. 20 OBSCURATION Partial obscuration, lowest cloud layer is overcast. 32 INDEFINITE Indefinite ceiling (no cloud cover amount available?) 64 CLEAR No clouds below 12000 feet 128 FEW Few (less than 10% coverage) 255 MISSING Missing (sky condition not measured). * UNKNOWNCODE All other values that may appear in the database. 4.2 File Naming Conventions station_name.txt 5.0 DATA REMARKS The Iowa Mesonet receives 1 minute observations from the state Department Of Transportation (DOT) in Iowa, which owns the network of AWOS sensors that report their data in METAR format (via a private company) to the world via the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) NADIN network and then to the Iowa Mesonet via the National Weather Service (NWS). 6.0 REFERNCES None.