Metadata for Mean Temperature for 1948-2012 from TopoWx Metadata for Mean Temperature for 1948-2012 from TopoWx

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Identification Information:

Citation:

Originator: Montana Climate Office
Publication date: 02/10/2015
Title: Mean Temperature for 1948-2012 from TopoWx
Edition: MCO_TopoWx_v1.0_2014
Online linkage: ftp://mco.cfc.umt.edu/tmean/Readme.html

Browse graphic file name: http://mco.cfc.umt.edu/images/MCOTMEANNormalThumbnail.jpg
Browse graphic file description: Montana Climate Office mean temperature yearly normal graphic
Browse graphic file type: JPEG

Abstract:

This raster dataset shows daily, monthly, yearly, monthly normal, and yearly normal mean temperature in degrees Celsius with a nominal grid cell resolution of 800 meters for the years 1948-2012.

Purpose:

Gridded topographic-climatic datasets are increasingly used to drive many ecological and hydrological models and assess climate change impacts. These datasets can be an invaluable tool for spatially explicit ecological and hydrological modeling, for facilitating better end-user understanding, and for advancing community-driven improvements. While the use of such datasets is ubiquitous, their inherent limitations are largely unknown or overlooked particularly in regard to spatial uncertainty and climate trends. To address these limitations, TopoWx (pronounced 'twix') provides a statistical framework for producing a 30-arcsec (800-meter) resolution gridded dataset of daily minimum and maximum temperature and related uncertainty from 1948 to 2012 for the conterminous United States. Like similar datasets, this derivation uses weather station data and elevation-based predictors of temperature, but also implement a unique spatio-temporal interpolation that incorporates remotely sensed 1-km land skin temperature. The framework is able to capture several complex topographic-climatic variations, including mean temperature inversions, and represent spatial uncertainty in interpolated normal temperatures. Homogenization of input station data also allows interpolated temperature trends to be more consistent with US Historical Climate Network trends compared to those of existing interpolated topographic-climatic datasets. Overall mean absolute errors for annual normal minimum and maximum temperature are 0.78 and 0.56 degrees Celsius, respectively.

Supplemental information:

Processed from TopWx NetCDF raster file source using Python 2.7 code maintained by the Montana Climate Office.

Time period of content:

Beginning date: 01/01/1948
Beginning time: 0
Ending date: 12/31/2012
Currentness reference: publication date

Status:

Progress: Complete
Maintenance and update frequency: As needed

Access constraints: None

Use constraints:

The Montana Climate Office (MCO) provides this product/service for informational purposes only. The MCO did not produce it for, nor is it suitable for legal, engineering, or surveying purposes. Consumers of this information should review or consult the primary data and information sources to ascertain the viability of the information for their purposes. The MCO provides these data in good faith but does not represent or warrant its accuracy, adequacy, or completeness. In no event shall the MCO be liable for any incorrect results or analysis; any direct, indirect, special, or consequential damages to any party; or any lost profits arising out of or in connection with the use or the inability to use the data or the services provided. The MCO makes these data and services available as a convenience to the public, and for no other purpose. The MCO reserves the right to change or revise published data and/or services at any time.

Point of contact:

State Climatologist
Director of Montana Climate Office
Montana Climate Office
32 Campus Drive
Missoula, Montana 59812-0576
Telephone: 406.243.6793
E-Mail: state.climatologist@umontana.edu

Point of contact:

Michael D. Sweet
Research and Information Systems Specialist
Montana Climate Office
32 Campus Drive
Missoula, Montana 59812-0576
Telephone: 406.243.5265
E-Mail: michael.sweet@umontana.edu

Data set credit:

The Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group (NTSG) research laboratory at the University of Montana (http://ntsg.umt.edu) and the Montana Climate Office (http://climate.umt.edu).

Oyler, J. W., Ballantyne, A., Jencso, K., Sweet, M. and Running, S. W. (2014), Creating a topoclimatic daily air temperature dataset for the conterminous United States using homogenized station data and remotely sensed land skin temperature. Int. J. Climatol.. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/joc.4127.

Data Quality Information:

Logical consistency report:

Value range resulting from bilinear transformation to Montana State Plane projection is within expected range. NoData values are assigned where they existed in the source representation.

Completeness report:

Number of NoData items with respect to the total number of NoData that should have been present

Lineage:

Process step:: TopoWx data projected to Montana State Plane NAD83 is extracted to an area-of-interest (ftp://mco.cfc.umt.edu/resources/MCO/Area-of-Interest/BoundariesMSP.gdb/area-of-interest) defined by the Montana Climate Office to encompass all major sub-basins that intersect with Montana's border. The Esri ArcGIS Spatial Analyst ExtractByMask_sa method is used. For the extract method, the source is used as a snap raster to maintain alignment of the grid cells. Pyramids are built for the result using Esri ArcGIS BuildPyramids_management method.
Process step:: Daily temperature in gridded format represented as Esri ArcGIS rasters are averaged for each year
Process step:: A mean and standard deviation is calculated for all years across the time period.